


Titan X

by moviefan_92



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Action, Action/Adventure, Adventure, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Best Friends, Childhood Friends, Clones, Comfort, Comfort/Angst, Drama, Dubious Science, Dysfunctional Family, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family, Family Drama, Family Issues, Female Friendship, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Gen, Giants, Heavy Angst, Horror, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Mad Science, Male Friendship, Male-Female Friendship, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Military, Military Science Fiction, Monster Hunters, Monsters, Mystery, Planning Adventures, Science, Science Experiments, Science Fiction, Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan References, Supernatural Elements, Suspense, Team as Family, Teenage Drama, Titan Shifters, Titans, Transformation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-27
Updated: 2018-12-27
Packaged: 2019-09-28 08:31:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 36,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17179475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moviefan_92/pseuds/moviefan_92
Summary: Post first Season anime, pre-second Season.An unusual new Titan suddenly appears beyond the wall. When the Scout Regiment are summoned by a strange doctor to take it down, many questions need to be answered as the mysterious Titan shows many new abilities that make it stand out from others, including an ability that may doom the entire human race. Not even Eren with his Titan Shifter power may be a match for it, but if he fails, he may lose more than his life. What secrets surround the mysterious creature known only as Titan X, and will Eren and the others be able to stop it before it's too late?Adventure/Supernatural/Suspense/Horror/Drama/Angst/Friendship/Mystery/Hurt & Comfort. Rated for violence, language, and gore.STORY COMPLETE





	1. Secret Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> (A/N: I've started my "Attack On Titan" fic. I've been wanting to write one ever since I saw the anime. For those of you that read the manga, this story takes place during the time between the 'Female Titan Arc' and the 'Class of the Titans Arc'. If you haven't read the manga, that's ok, just know that this story takes place after the first season of the anime. I am sorry to say that this story will be a shorter one, maybe about 30,000 words, and about 7 or 8 chapters, but we can enjoy it while it lasts. So, without further ado, lets get started.)
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

**Originally posted on 10/24/14 - 12/12/14 at: _<https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10778023/1/Titan-X>_**

 

 

**" TITAN X"**

**Chapter 1: Secret Meeting**

They didn't know why they had been called here, only that the safety of the entire human race was at stake. At least that's what the mysterious letter they had received claimed. The letter was from some named Dr. P, and it gave specific instructions to come to this location.

But when wasn't the safety of the entire human race at stake? Ever since the Titans mysteriously appeared many years ago, humanity had been on the verge of extinction. If not for the protections of Walls Maria, Rose, and Sina, the Titans would have devoured them all long ago.

Yet a letter such as this could not be ignored, especially since it had the royal seal on it. That meant that it came from those at the very top. But the former commander of the Scout Regiment, Erwin Smith, and the leader of the Special Operations Squad, Levi Ackerman, knew to be cautious. There were conspirators in the government, and many people would love to see them dead.

While most of the residents had grown content with being sealed off from the outside world, putting their faith in the giant structures that protected their society from the Titan threat for over 100 years, that had changed when the mysterious 60 meter tall Colossal Titan and the seemingly indestructible Armored Titan appeared and broke through Wall Maria, followed by Wall Rose just a few years later. Had it not been for Eren Yeager sealing up the breach with his, as of now, unexplainable ability to transform into a Titan, humanity would have surely perished.

Of course, having a human that could turn into a Titan by simply injuring himself, Eren's preferred method being to bite his hand, caused a great deal of concern to the public and the higher ups. Therefore, Eren was to be monitored at all times, even put down if necessary, and it was for this reason that he had joined the two leaders.

None of them had been to his part of the city, let alone in this building. In truth, they hadn't even known it was here at all, not having cared for much of anything beyond killing Titans. And they weren't foolish enough to come to an isolated area alone where they could be ambushed. Just outside, a few trusted and highly skilled members of the Scout Regiment stood at the ready. Mikasa Ackerman, foster brother of Eren, and the best there was at killing Titans after Levi. Armin Arlert, brilliant strategist and fearsomely loyal soldier. Jean Kirschstein, cynical, natural born leader with great assessment skills. And Hange Zoë, 14th commander of the Survey Corps, obsessively passionate about discovering everything there was to know about Titans.

Knowing who to trust was a difficult thing these days. It was hard to figure out who the enemy was, made all the more difficult with the appearance of the only Female Titan ever seen, who, in fact, turned out to be a Titan Shifter like Eren. Discovering that it was Annie Leonhart, a trusted friend and mentor, had shaken up all those that had been close to her. It also posed a horrifying question, how many Titan Shifters were hidden among them? Asking Annie was not an option, for she had crystalized herself to prevent being interrogated.

If you couldn't trust your friends and allies, how could you even consider trusting strangers? This Dr. P was a stranger for sure, yet the urgency of the letter required action on their part. At the very least, it needed to be looked into, and so, here they were.

After having been granted access to the facility, the three had been asked to wait in what seemed to serve as a lobby. They didn't have to wait long, an elderly bald man with glasses and a long white beard, wearing a white lab coat, came out to greet them. As first impressions went, he came across as friendly enough, but under the watchful gaze of the highly skillful Erwin and Levi, there was an air of anxiety about him.

"Commander Erwin, Captain Levi, how wonderful to meet you. Thank you for answering my letter and coming on such short notice. I am Dr. Pacu." His gaze landed on Eren, and he cleared his throat. "I believe I requested for the two of you to come alone."

Erwin lifted his chin higher before replying. "Eren Yeager is to be watched at all times."

"And with recent events," Levi added, "we had to be wary of walking into a trap."

The doctor hesitated. Sighing, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a picture. "Very well. Lets get straight to business. This is the reason why I asked you to come here."

He passed the picture to Erwin, and the three studied the image. It was the picture of a Titan. It had an average body build for a Titan, perhaps somewhat more muscular than normal, with long spiky blonde hair that fell down its back, nearly reaching its waist. As was typical for a Titan, it lacked genitals, though it still appeared to be male. Its arms were well built, but were blood red, lacking skin from the top of its shoulders to the end of its fingertips, much like the Colossal Titan.

At first it appeared as if it was wearing jewelry on its hands, but upon closer inspection, they saw that these jewels were in fact spikes; four on each hand, protruding from the knuckles, each one about the same size as the Titan's fingertips, and they seemed to be made out of the same hard crystal-like substance the Female Titan's skin hardened into.

The rest of its body was covered in skin, as was the norm, though like with all Titans, it seemed to be semi-transparent, allowing the blood flowing beneath it to be distinctively made out. Its mouth had a unique deformity that greatly resembled Eren's in his Titan form, only the teeth were sharp and pointy. And judging by the trees in the background, they could estimate that this Titan was in the 13-15 meter range.

Eren glanced at the doctor. "So what? It's just an another Titan."

Dr. Pacu adjusted his glasses. "Not quite, young man. This ones an abnormal."

They knew what that meant. Titans that were labeled as 'abnormals', or 'deviants', behaved differently than others; be it their actions, the way they moved, or some other distinct behavior that separated them from normal Titans. Though they were rare, these kind, with their erratic and unpredictable behavior, faster speed, and unusual way they moved, made them even more dangerous than the average Titan.

Levi seemed unimpressed by this. "I don't see what this has to do with us, or why it's so urgent. Abnormals appear every now and then."

The doctor shook his head. "Not like this one; you can be sure of that. This one is different from every other Titan we've seen before, much like the Colossal, Armored, and Female Titan. Not to mention our young friend here." His eyes went back to Eren. "That's why we took an interest in it."

Erwin eyed him suspiciously. "What do you mean we? Who are you anyway? And what is this place?"

Dr. Pacu held his head up high proudly. "We are his majesty's royal science, research, and development team. Here, at our base of operations, we dedicate ourselves to making the world a better place by finding ways to deal with the Titan scum. Even past members of our team assisted Angel Aaltonen in the creation of the Three Dimensional Maneuver Gear you use to fight the Titans."

Levi raised an eyebrow, now looking interested. "And why have you taken such an interest in this Titan?"

A dark look crossed the doctor's face. "I'm afraid that's classified. Just know that at the time of its discovery, it seemed that Titan X would be a valuable asset to our research."

Eren's eyes narrowed. "Titan X?" Was that the thing's name? He didn't like giving Titans names or labels, like they were anything even remotely human, no matter how much they resembled them. The worms in the dirt were more worthy of life than those vicious man-eaters, and they didn't give names to them beyond what their ancestors identified the different species as, strictly for research purposes.

Erwin didn't care about such trivial things, and his irritation was beginning to rise over the situation. "And I assume you would like for us to capture this Titan for you, am I right?" That would be just like those snobbish higher up, getting him and his men, good soldiers, to risk life and limb for their own personal gain. Capturing a Titan was extremely difficult, made more difficult the larger they were. Catching an abnormal was damn near impossible. And now they were expected to capture this Titan X while the doctor sat safely behind the walls?

But Dr. Pacu surprised them all with his answer. "No, sir, I want you to kill it."

Even the usual stoic look on Levi's face revealed that he too was surprised. "Kill it?"

Dr. Pacu nodded. "It has been decided by my team and I that this particular Titan is far too dangerous to be left alive. It must be put down at all costs, otherwise all of humanity is doomed."

Suspicion arose in the three soldiers. How could a single Titan wipe out all of humanity? It was true that even a single Titan was incredibly dangerous, but even civilians could kill one lone Titan by overwhelming it with cannon fire. Granted, that alone could prove to be difficult with their rapid regeneration abilities, the only way to kill a Titan being to carve out a chunk of flesh large enough and deep enough from the back of the neck, severing the main nerve that spread through the entire body, thus killing it before it could regenerate.

"What is it, exactly, that makes this Titan so dangerous?" Erwin asked, though he suspected he knew what the doctor's reply would be.

And he was right. "It's classified. Trust me when I say that there are some things you are better off not knowing. You'll sleep better at night remaining ignorant."

That was unlikely. The nightmares the Titans caused were unimaginable. Ranging anywhere from three to fifteen meters tall, excluding the 60 meter Colossal Titan, and the recently discovered Hidden Titan in Wall Rose, they were practically mindless, emotionless, violent monsters. Their need to eat humans actually seemed to be unnecessary since they got all the energy they needed from the sun alone. After all, they had supposedly lasted over 100 years without any sustenance. Eating humans seemed to be a highly enjoyable act for them, nothing more. Each one with either a big smile or a blank expression on heir face, they were made all the more eerie by the fact that they looked remarkably similar to humans.

Erwin and Levi looked back at the picture, thinking things through. Eren was ready to obey whatever order they gave him. He didn't care if they went after this particular Titan or not, just as long as he got to kill some of them.

A look passed between the commander and the captain, an unspoken decision seemingly reached. "Very well," said Erwin, "we'll take care of your Titan X. Although the odds of actually finding it among all the others is very slim, we'll be sure to keep an eye out for it during our scouting missions, and go after it if it's seen."

Dr. Pacu pushed his glasses farther up his nose; it seemed they slipped down a lot. "I'm afraid that won't be good enough. We can't wait around for you to randomly run into this Titan. I need you to seek it out and put it down as soon as possible."

Levi's eyes narrowed. "With all due respect," he muttered, his voice dripping with sarcasm, "how exactly do you expect us to find a single solitary Titan out of the millions that are out there?"

In answer, the doctor snapped his fingers. The double-doors behind him opened, and a woman also wearing a white lab coat entered the lobby, apparently having been waiting for Dr. Pacu's signal. She handed him a fancy metal box and hurried back through the doors. In turn, the doctor then handed the box to Levi, who looked at it curiously.

"What's this thing?"

Dr. Pacu merely pressed a red button on the box, and the glass screen lit up. A few seconds passed, and an image appeared on the screen. At the bottom, there was a small white dot, sending out what appeared to be waves across the screen. Aside from some numbers along the right side of the screen, it was a blurry green image, the only other thing standing out being a second dot in the top left corner that seemed to pulse whenever a wave the white dot sent out passed over it.

Eren's eyes were as wide as saucers as he looked at the strange metal box. "Whoa, what  _is_  that?"

Looking proud of himself, the doctor patted the box. "That is some technology from the old world, from before the Titans showed up. As part of our research, we aim to rebuild and repair the ancient technology our ancestors used. None of it has been released to the public yet, but our team has actually come a long way. This device that you see before you is our reconstructed version of what our ancestors called a radar."

He pointed to the red dot. "That is Titan X. We inserted another piece of ancient technology inside it. It's called a tracking device, and it goes along with the radar. Together, these two devices were used by the people of the old world to find anyone or anything, no matter where it went."

"That's amazing!" Eren exclaimed. He had always been fascinated with the old world and what lay beyond the walls; almost as much as Armin, who would love to see this strange device.

The doctor chuckled. "If you think that's amazing, just watch this."

He pressed another button on the metal box, and the numbers on the sides changed as the screen seemed to zoom in. Pressing another button beneath it caused the screen to zoom out once more.

"These buttons control the range. See the numbers on the sides of the screen here. They tell you the distance. This," he pointed to the white dot, "is where we are. Or, more specifically, where the radar is. Use this to find out where Titan X is and how far away from it you are."

Erwin was impressed; even Levi silently admitted that this was rather amazing, but something the doctor said made him curious. "You say it tracks Titan X because of the device you inserted in it. How exactly did you manage to stick something inside a Titan?"

He received a glare from the doctor at the question. "Not that it's any of your business, but it was done while it was subdued."

"And who subdued it. As far as we know, any captured Titans were overseen by Commander Hange Zoë."

Dr. Pacu humphed. "In case you've forgotten, the Scout Regiment is not the only group dedicated to fighting Titans. We have a few soldiers of our own in employment."

Erwin raised an eyebrow in interest. There were soldiers that worked for the doctor? This was certainly news to him, but he did know that inquiring about that right now would be a wasted effort based on how careful the doctor was being with his use of words. He decided to store that information away for later.

"So," he said, deliberately changing the topic. "This radar, how does it work?"

Levi glanced at him, noting how he had changed the topic, but said nothing of it as they waited for an answer. A few seconds passed where Dr. Pacu hesitated, seeming to consider whether he should tell them or not. "I guess there's no harm in you knowing. In the old world, we had these things called satellites. Our ancestors sent them up into space. Down here, we had various forms of technology that could make contact with them, and they would send back information on anything they picked up, or so our research leads us to believe."

Eren unconsciously looked up at the ceiling. Sending objects into space? Was that even possible? They couldn't even go out beyond the Walls without risking being eaten, so the possibility of going up into space was incomprehensible.

"The tracking device we inserted inside Titan X connects to one of these satellites," Dr. Pacu continued. "The satellite we managed to gain access to is able to read the signals the tracking device gives off, and send the information to the radar here. We can track Titan X wherever he is."

While Eren was busy marveling at this amazing ingenuity, Erwin and Levi were busy calculating what the doctor had told them, and it brought forth an abundance of questions. How had the doctor and his team discovered this Titan, and why had none of them ever heard of it before? How did he manage to insert the tracking device thing into the Titan's body? It seemed to imply that, at one point, Titan X had once been in the possession of Dr. Pacu and his team. If so, how had they captured it, how did it escape, and where had they been keeping it? In this facility? It was located in an isolated part of the inside of Wall Rose, so it was a possibility.

There was also the question of what was so important about this Titan that the doctor and his team had saw fit to spend so much time and money on it with reconstructed technology from the old world. How could a Titan possibly be worth all that trouble, and why did they want to suddenly throw it all away by killing it? There were far too many questions.

Something wasn't right. There was a lot more to this than Dr. Pacu was telling them. But one thing was for sure, whatever the doctor and his team had been doing, they considered this Titan to be more dangerous than the importance of whatever research they were doing. If they were indeed ready to throw away all their research just to kill of this one specific Titan, then they were right about it needing to be put down before whatever was so dangerous about it came to pass. They could find out whatever the doctor was hiding once the threat had been neutralized.

"You can count on us," Erwin assured Dr. Pacu. "We'll find this Titan, and we'll put it down."

The relief on Dr. Pacu's face was evident. "Thank you, thank you. You're doing a great service to your fellow man. There's just one more thing." His gaze shifted to the unwelcomed third party member. "Eren Yeager is not, under any circumstances, to accompany you on this mission."

The three soldiers were surprised. Levi hid it well, and Erwin's eyebrows merely rose, but Eren was openly outraged. "What? Why? There's no way I'm staying behind! I'll take this Titan out in no time flat."

Erwin held up his hand to silence him, and looked at Dr. Pacu. "Doctor, understand that Eren is a valuable asset to the Scout Regiment. With him aiding us, our chances of defeating this Titan are several times greater."

The doctor pushed his glasses farther up his nose. "Be that as it may, he must remain behind for this mission. To have him and Titan X meet will be a great folly."

"Why?" Eren demanded. "What's so bad about us meeting?" His eyes narrowed. "Or is it classified?"

Dr. Pacu glared at him. "Indeed it is. I told you that there are things you are better off not knowing. This is one of them. I will not negotiate on this. Eren Yeager is to remain behind. Or should I put my faith in the Military Police instead?"

Eren scowled. And even though Erwin and Levi were better at keeping emotions in check, he knew that they greatly disapproved as well. Rivals was too mild a word to describe the relationship between the Military Police and the Scout Regiment. The Military Police was completely corrupt. Not a single person in the Scout Regiment trusted them. The doctor knew this, and was more or less giving them an ultimatum. The thought of the Military Police taking charge of something that was seemingly this important did not sit well with them.

Erwin sighed. "Very well, Eren Yeager shall remain behind."

Eren opened his mouth to protest, but a look from Levi silenced him.

Dr. Pacu gave the commander a suspicious look. "This is very important, even though I can't tell you why. Do I have your word?"

Erwin stood up straight and placed his fist over his heart in a standard military solute. "On my honor as an officer, I give you my word." His eyes narrowed. "However, you should keep in mind that it is  _you_  who is asking  _us_  for a favor. You may want to work on how you ask for favors in the future."

The doctor just smiled and turned to leave. "Thank you, I'll keep that in mind."

Eren's fists clenched. He had a feeling that they had just made a very big mistake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N: Geez, Dr. Pacu certainly didn't give them much to go on. But don't think that Erwin and Levi are just blindly following orders. They're plenty suspicious fully intend to find out more about this later. It's obvious the doctor is hiding something. But what is it? And just what is this mysterious Titan X? What could possibly make it so dangerous? You'll have to wait and see. In the mean time, I would love to hear from you guys. Does anyone have any ideas about what makes this Titan so dangerous? I'm interest in your theories. I already told one of my readers what it is, you know who you are, so please reframe from spoiling it for others. I'd still love a review though. Over and out.)


	2. Briefing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N: Well, if you're still reading, it means I've managed to catch your attention with the first chapter. So far, we've learned a bit about the mysterious Titan X from the secretive Dr. Pacu. Now it's time to inform the others of their new mission. We'll be getting some interesting interactions from the characters. I hope I got their personalities right.)
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

**Chapter 2: Briefing**

"So basically," said Jean, "this creepy doctor expects us to use some ancient technology to find an incredibly dangerous Titan that can supposedly single-handedly wipe out all of humanity without telling us a damn thing about it."

"That's right," Levi replied calmly.

"And he wants us to kill it without Eren's help?" Armin asked.

"That's about the long and short of it."

Jean threw his hands in the air. "Well that's just great! Why don't we just serve our asses up on a silver platter while we're at it?"

Connie Springer, another reliable member of the Scout Regiment, patted Jean on the back. "Now, now, calm down, man."

Hange, on the other hand, was practically salivating at the news of this mission, and the prospect of a new type of Titan. "Oh, this new Titan sounds so interesting. I can't wait to see it. Maybe I'll be able to study it a bit before we kill it."

Eren humphed. "Yeah, hope you all have fun with that. I'll just be sitting here under lock and key with my thumb up my ass."

Mikasa walked up beside him. "It must be for the best. The doctor seems to know a good deal about this Titan. If he's so desperately wants this Titan dead, but doesn't want you anywhere near it, even though you're our best chance at taking it down, then it must be for a good reason."

Truth be told, she was just glad that Eren wouldn't be in danger. She hated the fact that he was constantly putting his life on the line, and would do anything to keep him safe. Forget the stupid Titans and what was beyond the Walls, all she wanted was for the two of them to live out the remainder of their lives together in peace, but Eren's determination to kill ever last Titan and to free everyone from the threat they presented was too great. He wouldn't stop fighting, Mikasa knew that, although the thought of losing him terrified her to no end. If he died, life would not be worth living for her. He and their best friend, Armin, were her only reasons to go on.

It was painfully obvious to anyone and everyone that she was deeply in love with him. The only ones that couldn't seem to see it were Eren and Mikasa herself, who constantly told herself that what she felt for him was that of a family love since he and his parents had taken her in after her own parents were murdered. Yet everyone else could clearly see the truth, and were simply waiting for her to figure it out for herself, except, perhaps, for Jean, who had been harboring a crush on her for some time now, even though it was clear that she only had eyes for Eren.

As for Eren himself, he was so focused and intent on killing Titans that he didn't think of anything else. The rage and hate had long since boiled over within him, and he wouldn't be satisfied until every last Titan was dead, especially the Colossal and Armored Titan, and, most of all, the one he had come to think of as the Smiling Titan, who had devoured his mother. But perhaps one day he would finally pull his head out of his own ass and realize that there was actually more to their current way of life besides killing Titans, and find something else to live for. Perhaps he would even realize his foster sister's true feeling for him as well, but how he would respond to this revelation was anyone's guess.

But as of now, romance wasn't even an option for him. The only things truly important to Eren were killing Titans, keeping his friends safe, weeding out the traitors, and discovering the truth about the Titans and his Titan Shifter ability. Even if he wanted to stop fighting, that was no longer an option. With his strange power, he now had an obligation, as the best chance for humanity, to keep fighting. However, it seemed that the goals they had currently been striving for would need to be put on hold while they worried about this mysterious Titan X. And Eren was not happy about the fact that he would be left behind.

Angrily, he looked at Mikasa. "What possible reason could there be for me not to fight this Titan?"

"There's no telling," Armin replied. "Maybe Dr. Pacu didn't think you would be able to beat it and didn't want to risk losing you."

"He's got a point," Sasha Blouse replied, her voice coming out muffled from the bread roll in her mouth. "You're humanity's best chance at defeating the Titans. We can't afford to lose you."

As Eren growled irritably, she shoved the rest of the roll in her mouth. Looking down at her empty plate, she pouted as her stomach growled, her non-weight gaining gluttony never satisfied.

Beside her, Krista Lenz offered her the half eaten roll from her own plate. "Want mine?"

With shining eyes, Sasha nodded enthusiastically at the partly eaten bread roll, but the smile vanished from her face as Ymir suddenly appeared behind Krista and ate the roll right out of her hand while throwing Sasha an irritated and jealous look.

Eren just rolled his eyes. "It wouldn't matter anyway if this Titan is dangerous enough to wipe us all out."

"Enough!" Levi snapped. "Commander Erwin has made his decision. That'll be the end of it."

They had not seen the chief since he went in search of volunteers to partake in the mission while Levi and Eren briefed the members of the Special Operations Squad.

Hange's eyes were still shining with excitement. "I don't know what the big deal is, but I would love to see what would happen if the Rogue Titan and this Titan X met."

Yeah, Eren bet she would. The woman was positively obsessed. The Rogue Titan had been the name given to his Titan form, for obvious reasons, and Hange had shown great interest in him ever since she first heard about him. And, truthfully, the woman downright terrified him sometimes. She would just love to get her hands on him and begin experimenting. There were even some mornings where Eren expected to wake up and find her dissecting him. His Titan regenerating powers still seemed to work in his human form, though at a much slower pace. Hange would probably convince herself that he could survive being dissected, and then actually do it.

"Well," said Armin, "there's obviously a good reason why they shouldn't meet."

Eren glared at him. "Why? Because you think I'm too weak?"

Armin looked startled. "I didn't say that! I'm just saying that maybe that's what the doctor thinks."

He almost made a grave mistake. Eren  _hated_  it when people called him weak. He'd felt powerless against the Titans his entire life, and never had that feeling been stronger than when the Smiling Titan had eaten his mother right in front of him because he wasn't strong enough to save her. It was for this reason that he always became so defensive whenever Mikasa became protective of him. He didn't want to appear weak, or have others think he was weak, so he tended to get angry at her protective nature, insisting that he was not her "kid brother", and could take care of himself.

Jean snickered. "You really do have a death wish. You always want to run off into battle."

Eren shot him a dirty look. "You're going. Do you have a death wish?"

" _I_  have orders. My orders are to go, your orders are to remain here. Quit your bitching and just be happy you don't have to risk your life for once, you suicidal maniac."

Eren stood up. "I don't know about you, Jean, but I'm not one to sit and cower while my friends risk their lives. You may have been committed to your training to run away from the Titans, but I trained for the reason we were supposed to, to fight them."

This was common ground for the two of them, and they had a shaky friendship to begin with. Ever since the first time they met, they had been at odd ends with their opposing opinions, made all the worse by Jean's jealousy over Mikasa's feelings for Eren.

As was expected, Jean stood up to meet Eren's challenging gaze. "Hey, I'm willing to fight when necessary, but I'm not going to go blindly charging into battle every time a Titan appears."

Eren glared at him. "So you're just going to let others die for you because you don't want to fight? Real nice, Jean. In case you haven't noticed, we don't have the luxury of determining when a Titan will appear. We have to be ready and willing to fight at all times."

"Hey, I said that I would fight when I have to, but I'm not going to looking for a fight. I'm not throwing away my life because I'm too damn stubborn to stand down!"

It seemed as if another fight was going to break out between them, and Armin and Mikasa moved to break them up, but someone beat them to the punch. A blade sliced through the air, coming between Eren and Jean, almost literally cutting the tension in the air.

"That's enough," Levi scolded them emotionlessly. "The decision has already been made. Commander Erwin has given his word." He sheathed his blade and glared at Eren. "Cadet Eren, you are to remain here in the city and await our return. Do whatever you need to do to deal with that. Go to sleep, say a prayer, get something to eat, exercise, I don't care, but you will follow orders, and your orders are to sit this one out. Now that will be the end of it. Do I make myself clear?"

Properly reprimanded, Eren sat down. "Yes, sir."

"And Cadet Jean," Levi added, "many good men have died, even flat out sacrificed their lives to keep humanity safe from the Titan menace. Without such determination, bravery, and selflessness, we would have died out long ago. It wouldn't hurt for you to show such individuals the proper respect."

Also well scolded, Jean sat down as well. "Understood, sir."

Levi now spoke to them all. "The real enemies are the Titans, and those that would side with them. It's enough to have the Military Police conspiring against us, it will not do to have us fighting amongst ourselves."

His eyes landed on each of them, lingering for a few moments longer on Reiner Braun and Bertolt Hoover, who had yet to say anything about this. Both had been under suspicion for possibly being in league with the traitor, Annie Leonhart, but there was no proof one way or the other.

If only he knew the truth.

The seriousness of the situation was broke by Hange, who was now examining the radar. "How does this work? It's truly amazing. Our ancestors must have been real geniuses. Oh, what I would give to take it apart and see how it works!"

Levi's attention was now directed at her. "Don't tamper with that. We need it to find the doctor's Titan."

"I know, I know!" Hange complained. "It's still amazing how his team was able to recreate such ancient technology. I wonder what else they've managed to build."

Levi raised an eyebrow at this. He hadn't thought about it, being more concerned with this mysterious Titan X, and whatever Dr. Pacu was hiding about it. But now his interest had been sparked. What else had the doctor and his team managed to build? Perhaps that was worth looking into as well. He would take the matter up with Erwin when he returned.

(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)

It hadn't been easy recruiting soldiers to volunteer for this mission. After the catastrophe with the Female Titan that had resulted in so many deaths, no one was all that eager to go out on another excavation to track down an unknown Titan that could supposedly wipe out all of humanity.

Erwin may have been an eloquent speaker, but even he had trouble convincing soldiers to join his team for this new mission. It was only with the aid of Dot Pixis that he was able to gain a good number of volunteer soldiers. Along with the Special Operations Squad, there were now 134 soldiers ready to undertake the mission of going after the mysterious Titan X.

Eren was still not happy about being left behind, but he still went to bid Mikasa and Armin goodbye and to wish them luck. "You guys be careful out there. I don't know what it is about this Titan that makes it so dangerous, but it can't be good."

Armin was visibly nervous, and Mikasa placed a hand on his shoulder to calm him. "Don't worry, I'll look after you."

With the exception of Eren, the only other person the seemingly emotionless Mikasa truly cared about was their childhood friend. The three of them had always been together ever since Eren's parents had taken Mikasa into their home after her family was killed off by a band of criminals. She was friendly with other members of the Scout Regiment, but Eren and Armin were the only truly irreplaceable ones to her.

Knowing that Mikasa was there helped calm Armin's nerves somewhat. She was the best out of the 104th Trainees Squad after all. He just wished his own skills were better. He may have been a brilliant strategist, but he was short, slow, and weak. Even Eren would have lost his life saving him had it not been for his Titan Shifter powers.

Sensing his friend's unease, Eren clapped him on the back. "Hey, have more faith in yourself; you're a fine soldier."

Armin blushed in embarrassment, still doubtful, but didn't say anything. Next Eren looked to Mikasa, noting her forlorn expression. He had the utmost confidence in her, but he was still concerned for her safety, which actually made him a bit of a hypocrite for always getting angry with her whenever she worried about him.

"Hey," he said quietly, "come back in one piece, ok."

Though her expression revealed nothing, her eyes spoke volumes. "I will. And you be careful too."

Eren raised an eyebrow. "I doubt I'll run into any Titan activity here, unless the Colossal or Armored Titan show up."

Mikasa lowered her voice so only he and Armin could hear. "I'm not talking about Titans. I'm talking about… you know."

Yes, he knew. She didn't have to say it. There were many people who wanted him dead, either because they feared his Titan Shifter powers, or because they viewed him as a personal threat. The possibility that there could be an assassination attempt on his life wasn't that hard to believe. Fortunately, Eren's Titan power allowed him to regenerate, perhaps at a slower pace than in his Titan form, but it certainly made it difficult to kill him. How much it would take to kill him was unknown, but none of them wanted to find out, except, perhaps, for Hange, purely for research purposes of course.

"Don't worry about me," he assured her. "You'll have enough to deal with. Besides, Commander Erwin is staying behind to 'keep and eye on me', so the higher ups won't freak out that I'm unattended."

Even that had been a stretch. During his farce of a trial, the only real reason Eren had been allowed to live was because Levi had assured the court that he could kill him if necessary, after beating the living shit out of him in front of everyone to prove his point. But with Levi leading the excavation to find and kill Titan X, the higher ups, in fact all people in general, were deeply on edge; never mind the fact that Eren had risked his life to stop the Female Titan. Since everyone was so nervous, Erwin had elected to stay behind and keep watch over him.

As for Eren himself, he was going to have to stay in an underground jail cell so people would feel more at ease. It was completely unfair, but it was for the best. The people were afraid of him and what he could do, and with such cowardly individuals with military power, such as Kitts Woerman, Rico Brzenska, and Nile Dok, who were looking for any excuse to have Eren killed, it would simply be more prudent to just stay out of the way entirely for the time being.

"Saddle up!" Levi shouted. "We're moving out!"

Eren looked at the two of them one last time. "Good luck, guys. Be careful."

"We will," Mikasa replied, then hesitated for a few moments. "Eren… stay safe. We'll be back soon."

And then they were off, after the mysterious Titan X that could supposedly single-handedly destroy all of humanity. Eren watched them go with a put out look on his face. Erwin was beside him, also disappointed that he couldn't help eliminate this apparent major threat, but he was better at hiding how he felt about it.

From a distance away, Dr. Pacu watched the departure of the brave soldiers that had dedicated their lives to protecting the citizens. He desperately hoped they would indeed be able to kill Titan X. That horrible monstrosity needed to be put down, no matter what the cost.

It was a shame that Eren Yeager couldn't go with them, but the risk was too great. The young man was humanity's greatest chance for victory. They couldn't risk sending him out. The other soldiers, even Captain Levi and Commander Erwin, were replaceable. Eren Yeager was not, and to send him out after Titan X meant to lose him. There would be no escaping Titan X once the two of them met. It would be an all or nothing battle between them; retreat would not be an option. Either Eren would have to take down Titan X, or all would be lost. It was too risky, and, quite frankly, the odds of him defeating Titan X were slimmer than him defeating the Colossal Titan.

The risk was too great, which was why the doctor had demanded that he stay behind. For certain, many soldiers, most likely all of them, would lose their lives on this mission, even Captain Levi and Cadet Mikasa. Perhaps he should have told them the truth about Titan X to better their chances. God forbid if they found out what that monster was truly capable of. But no, he had kept his silence. Telling them would cause unnecessary panic, possibly even cause them to behave rashly, and undoubtedly make many of them second-guess their decision to undertake this mission.

What he had told them was true; there were some things they were better off not knowing. Should they find out, they would wish they had remained ignorant. He could only hope they were fortunate enough to kill Titan X before the truth got out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N: Ok, mission on. There was understandably some discomfort about the lack of information regarding Titan X, and we had a humorous fight between Eren and Jean; they'll be more of those. The next chapter will be the start of the mission. If you're interested in learning more about Titan X, stay tuned for it.)


	3. A New Kind of Titan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N: Ok, so I wondered how I would be doing the action sequences when the time came for the Scouts to do some Titan fighting. It's not that easy to write, but I had fun with it. I just hope I captured the right feel for it. Also, I had a few requests and suggestions of what to do in my story. I'm not opposed to such things, but I'm trying to keep things as canon as possible since I'm trying to make this actually fit in the timeframe between the end of the 'Female Titan Arc' and the 'Class of the Titans Arc'. Now then, we've had a couple of chapter of getting information and making preparations, so now lets get to so action.)
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

**Chapter 3: A New Kind of Titan**

Thanks to the brilliant traveling formations that Levi came up with, the Scout Regiment was able to make their journey with minimal Titan encounter. The few that they had been unable to avoid were quickly eliminated with few casualties. Being the best of the best, Levi and Mikasa had taken out a majority of these Titans during the few encounters.

They were dealing with one right now. A Titan in the seven-meter class range had targeted them as prey, and was currently attempting to make a meal out of them. It was a typical Titan, very large, seemingly emotionless, and hungry for human flesh. Like all Titans, it resembled a man, though it lacked any reproductive organs to properly identify it as such. Blood could be seen flowing beneath its semi-transparent skin, and, like many Titans, it had a large somewhat deformed head, which generally included larger than normal facial features, usually around the mouth, and many teeth.

Using their Three Dimensional Maneuver Gear, more commonly known as ODM Gear, the soldiers danced around the Titan. It was made difficult since they were in an open field, most likely a former farmer land before Wall Maria fell. It had been why they had been forced to confront the Titan in the first place; there was nowhere to hide. It also made it very hard to fight since there was nowhere for their ODM Gear cables to latch on to. But thanks to their skills and cunning, both Levi and Mikasa had found a way around this by latching onto the Titan itself with their cables.

It was finally when Reiner and another soldier managed to sever the tendons in the Titan's ankles that it went down. Once it fell, Levi moved in for the kill before its ankles could heal, cutting out the area of flesh at the back of its neck. The Titan stopped moving, and as the soldiers reassembled, its flesh began to evaporate in a cloud of steam, leaving behind only its large skeletal structure, which would break down and dissolve soon enough.

Titans were known to have extremely high body temperatures, and even from simply cutting into the beast's flesh, Levi's blades were steaming from the heat. Though it was already evaporating, being the neat freak that he was, he carelessly cleaned off the blood by swiping it through the air, flinging it off, and sheathed his blades.

"Hopefully, that is the last one we'll run into out here in the open," he muttered dryly. He glanced at Armin. "How close are we to our target?"

With his lesser skills, Armin had been given the radar for safekeeping, and to keep track of where Titan X was. "Oh, um, let me see."

He pressed the zoom in button a few times, noting the distance between them and their target. It still astounded him that their ancestors had such technology as this. What he would give to learn how it worked, and to see what else their ancestors had managed to create. What other wonders were Dr. Pacu and his team working on?

"We're almost there," he replied. "About four more miles."

Levi nodded and turned to his men. "Look sharp, people! We're closing in on the target! We don't know what it might do! It may be unique like the Colossal Titan or the Armored Titan, so be extra careful!"

Both Reiner and Bertolt doubted that, and with good reason too, but neither were about to say anything about that. And, truth be told, they knew just as much about this Titan X as the rest of them.

The charge was on again, and the horses stampeded across the land with their riders. In the distance, they saw an area of green stretching out. As they got closer, they realized that it was a forest, much like the one they had battled the Female Titan in. Yet something stood between them and the sea of green, something large and human in appearance. The radar in Armin's arms indicated that they were finally coming up on Titan X.

The large beast took notice of the approaching humans, and its aimless wondering turned in their direction. It was indeed a member of the 15-meter class range, and it looked just like its photo. The only difference was that while the picture showed it with a flat and somewhat muscular stomach, the real thing had a bulging gut, like a large beer belly.

A few soldiers took notice of this and found it strange. Had it grown fat eating humans? Did it, by any chance, eat other Titans? The idea wasn't all that hard to believe; after all, they had witnessed other Titans feeding on both the Rogue Titan and the Female Titan before.

But Titans didn't gain weight. Their bodies stayed the same. They neither grew older, taller, skinnier, fatter, or more muscular. Once a Titan was filled to the brim on human flesh, it regurgitated its stomach contents, further supporting the evidence that they fed on humans purely for the enjoyment of killing and the delight they took in the taste of human flesh.

But there was no time to dwell on it as Titan X roared at them. Displaying the erratic movements that were typical of an abnormal, it sprang through the air in a frog-like leap, landing directly on the gathering of soldiers. The horses scattered as Titan X turned to them. In its mouth, a horse and its rider were crushed between its jaws, and another unfortunate soldier had his leg stuck between its teeth, screaming in agony. A few other soldiers had been flattened from its landing too, leaving behind mashed bloody corpses beneath it.

Flipping its head upward, Titan X flung the soldier whose leg had gotten caught in the air. Opening its lipless mouth, it swallowed them whole as they came back down. Then it turned to the crushed bodies of the others and began scooping them up and greedily shoving them into its mouth.

"Damn it!" Levi swore. "Fucking monster! Kill it!"

Cables flew out. Following Levi and Mikasa's example with the last Titan, they latched onto Titan X's body. A soldier made a go for the back of its neck, but missed by several feet, only cutting its shoulder. Titan X roared at the soldiers as they flew past as another one made another attempt to hit its weak spot. Titan X's head turned in their direction, jaws snapping at them as they pulled away.

Titan X pursued them, crawling across the ground like an animal at a rapid pace, trying to bite the retreating soldier. With no high structures to grapple on to, it made getting away slow, and the Titan chomped down on the unfortunate individual.

As it chewed its mouthful, another soldier landed on its back and raised their blade for a killing blow. Titan X shook its head furiously, knocking the soldier off. It turned to them as they fell, its large hand reaching, and the soldier threw their blade, burying it in the Titan's eye. It howled in pain and jumped to its feet, reaching up to rip the blade out.

Several more cables shot out, most latching onto the Titan's large belly. Titan X snarled and grabbed a handful of cables, tearing them free from its flesh. It pulled them upward, and over 20 soldiers flew in the air. Yanking the cables back down brought the soldiers down as well, and they splattered against the ground in bloody smears.

"Son of a bitch!" Jean snapped. "We've got to get this thing into trees!"

Levi looked at the forest about half a mile away and agreed that they wouldn't get anywhere with this one out here in the open. The trees would indeed allow them to move around faster and get up higher while restricting the Titan's movements with the limited space.

"Fall back," he shouted to his men. "To the trees!"

As the soldiers directed their horses to the forest, Titan X gave chase. Leaping into the air, it brought its big feet down on a few others in the back row before charging after those that had gone ahead. Thinking quickly, Armin pointed a flare gun at the Titan's head and fired. The smoke bomb exploded against its face, temporarily blinding it in a cloud of smoke, yet no one made an attempt on its life since they wouldn't have been able to see either, and instead used the opportunity to get farther away while they still could.

It only bought them a few second though as Titan X stomped out of the cloud of smoke. Roaring in aggravation, it charged after the soldiers once more. It had become a race to the forest, and Titan X was catching up. Several soldiers in the back met their end as Titan X kicked, crushed, grabbed, and smacked them away from the group. Those that managed to reach the forest immediately abandoned their horses and used their ODM Gear to get into the trees.

As the last of the soldiers rose up into the air, Titan X made a grab for one and tried to bite down on another. Its fingers closed around one, but its jaws only got the foot of another, and they escaped with only a severed limb. The poor soldier in its hand screamed fearfully as Titan X raised them to its mouth. It didn't just bite down completely, however, it only bit on their upper body hard enough to grip them its mouth. Then, almost as if it knew it would make their death more painful, it pulled, all but skinning them with its teeth.

Fixing its gaze up in the trees, it watched the soldiers flying around like insects, trying to bait it into the trees. It roared at them and entered the forest, its large hands reaching up to swat or grab the soldiers.

Now was the time to go on the attack. Unfortunately, most of these soldiers were newly recruited volunteers to the Scout Regiment, and didn't know how to work together the way Levi had trained his previous team before the Female Titan wiped them out. It left them at a disadvantage that would cost them greatly.

Though many blades cut into its flesh, none even came close to striking the area that would cause a kill. These attacks only served to infuriate Titan X even more, which was interesting enough in itself since Titans were usually completely emotionless, often hardly even reacting to pain. Titan X was different. Though it seemed to enjoy killing and eating people as much as the next Titan, it also seemed to get angry about being attacked. And as the battle continued, it appeared that it was now killing them simply to get rid of the soldiers.

Reiner still had no idea what this Titan was or where it came from. He may have been a traitor to mankind, but he did agree on one thing, this Titan needed to go down. It was far more aggressive than an ordinary Titan, and was proving to be smarter too.

He saw an opening for a deathblow and went for it, flying through the air behind the Titan. Unfortunately, it turned its head at the last moment, and he only managed to cut off a lock of its blonde hair, which immediately grew back.

He got its attention though, and ended up getting backhanded by the beast. As he fell, the Titan sprang at him. His cables shot out and found a holding, pulling him away before he hit the ground, and just missing getting crushed by the Titan's jaws.

Titan X landed on its hands and knees, and another soldier made a go for the back of its neck while it was down. They came close, but only managed to cut its ear. Titan X turned to them as they tried to pull away and lunged, catching them in its jaws.

Mikasa made her move. As the Titan crawled around on the forest floor, she landed on its back and began running up its spin. Feeling her, Titan X jumped to its feet, and Mikasa stabbed her blade into its back and began climbing up the length of its body as one would climb a mountain.

A large skinless hand reached back to grab her, and she stabbed it with one of her blades while pulling the other one free. She hitched a ride as Titan X brought its hands to the front again. Her cables shot out and buried into its forehead, pulling her up and flinging her high in the air. As she went up, her cables retracted and shot out again, this time burying into the top of its head, and pulled her back down towards it. As she came down, she prepared to strike the back of its neck.

Her blades cut into flesh, but, to her shock, did not strike the neck. Titan X's hand had quickly, and deliberately, moved to cover up its weak spot, blocking her blow. It knew about its weak spot!

As she got over her shock, the Titan's other hand went to the top of its head and grabbed the cables, ripping them from its scalp. Mikasa was pulled along as it threw her away from it. She went spinning through the air, unable to get her bearings. Her cables shot out at random, latching onto a tree and stopping her fall. Titan X lunged at her during this time, its jaws about to close on her. Another set of cables flew by, and Hange went soaring through the air, pulling Mikasa out of the way before the Titan's jaws could close on her.

"Did you see that?" she asked to no one in particular. "It blocked its weak spot. That thing has intelligence!"

Mikasa could see that much for herself. That made things all the more suspicious. The only other Titan to display that level of intelligence was the Female Titan. Could Titan X actually be a…?

This changed things. It had already been established that there were other Titan Shifters besides Eren and Annie. The Scout Regiment had been planning on weeding them out before they received Dr. Pacu's letter. Could the doctor be in league with the enemy? But then why would he request them to kill Titan X if he was?

Maybe they were jumping to conclusions. There was no mistake that Titan X had deliberately shielded its weak spot, but the rest of its behavior so far was typical for a Titan, mainly the killing and eating of humans. Not even Annie or Eren ever ate a human in their Titan forms. Could it be a cover to make it seem like it was just an ordinary Titan, or at least an abnormal? Or maybe the person inside had lost control like Eren had when he transformed. But even then he had never tried to eat anyone.

Perhaps it wasn't a Titan Shifter. Perhaps the Titans were just getting smarter. Both Armin and Jean had reported that Titans were capable of learning when they had started climbing trees. If the Titans began defending themselves, that spelled trouble, it would make it much harder to kill them. Hopefully, this was something that only pertained to this Titan alone; Dr. Pacu had said that it was very unique.

"We're going to have to rethink this," said Mikasa. "We should let Captain Levi know."

"He already knows," Hange told her. "Look, he's coming up with a plan."

Indeed he was. Taking refuge in a tree, the captain was reconsidering their battle strategy. He had seen the way Titan X had defended itself, and had also come to the conclusion that it could possibly a Titan Shifter. He wasn't 100% sure, but he had to consider the possibility.

He wasn't the only one. Another soldier came up to him, wondering what the plan was. "Orders, sir?"

Levi was silent for a moment as he watched Titan X. At the moment, it was clawing uselessly at a tree, trying to get to the people in it. That again was typical Titan behavior. If it was indeed a Titan Shifter, it wouldn't be acting that way, would it?

"The orders remain the same," he said. "We take it down. If it is a Titan Shifter, we'll find out when we carve open the nape of its neck. Then maybe we can get some answers."

He signaled to continue with the attack. Titan X swatted at them as they flew around, looking for an opening. Its long blonde hair made it difficult for them to even see the target area.

One of the soldiers got close. They latched onto the Titan's cheek and swung all the way around its head before going for the kill. Unfortunately, with the Titan thrashing about, they only managed to slice the back of its head. Titan X grabbed them before they could get away and threw them against a tree, splattering the unfortunate individual.

Roaring furiously, the Titan began lashing out violently. At first it seemed as if it was merely striking out at random, but it soon became apparent that it was striking at the trees, knocking over smaller ones and breaking the branches of the taller ones. It was another display of intelligence. Clearing the area restricted the soldiers' movements with their ODM Gear.

"Damn it," Levi swore. "Bind its arms! Restrict its movements!"

He displayed his intent by shooting a cable at a tree and swinging over to the Titan. He looped around its arm and then retreated to another tree, the cable still wrapped around the Titan's arm.

Titan X easily pulled its arm free of the lone cable, but the other soldiers understood what the captain wanted. Cables flew out as they went for the Titan's arms, many of them getting swatted in the process. Yet when they were finished, numerous cables were coiled around the Titan's arms, pulling them in opposite directions.

Roaring furiously, Titan X stamped its feet as it struggled to get free. The cables wouldn't hold for long, but they only needed a few seconds, and Jean used the time to go in for the kill. One cable latched onto Titan X's forehead, the other in its right eye. Jean flew towards it and swung around its head, going through its mess of hair to strike the nape of its neck.

"Die, monster!" he shouted, and struck.

It happened too fast for him to pull back. A crystal-like substance appeared over the Titan's nape, and his blade shattered against it as he struck.

"Son of a bitch!" he shouted, retreating as the Titan turned its head and snapped at him. "This damn thing can harden its skin too!"

Levi stared at the Titan with greater suspicion. This was further evidence that Titan X was a Titan Shifter. Only the Female Titan had displayed the ability to harden her skin, her and the Armored Titan, who always seemed to have hardened skin. There was also those crystal-like spikes protruding from Titan X's knuckles to consider.

But Titan X gave them no time to consider this. With a burst of strength, it finally pulled an arm free of the cables. Grabbing the ones wrapped around its other arm, it yanked. Soldiers were pulled from the trees, and Titan X immediately charged at them as they fell. It didn't bother making a grab for them, and instead slammed up against the trees, crushing the soldiers with its body. A few managed to avoid being smashed, and Titan X reached for them as they flew by, catching one and shoving them into its snapping jaws.

Those that escaped joined the soldiers in the other trees. Titan X turned its attention to them and roared. Taking a running start, it sprang through the air at them. Its fingers hardening and burying into the wood as it began climbing.

Levi acted quickly. He swung down and severed the Titan's fingers beyond the hardened skin, and Titan X fell. It was on its feet a moment later, its severed fingers steaming as regeneration kicked in. It charged at the tree and began punching, kicking, and throwing its weight at it, trying to topple it over.

"Man, that thing is pissed off," Connie observed. "You don't usually see Titans getting angry."

"Do you think it's really a Titan Shifter like Eren and Annie?" Krista asked.

"It certainly seems like it," Ymir replied, "but there's only one way to find out for sure."

Levi held up his hand. "Wait, this requires careful planning. Already this Titan is showing abilities that would suggest that it is indeed a Titan Shifter. If that really is the case, our priority should be to capture it, not kill it."

That was far easier said than done. Not only a different feat on its own, but they had not come prepared to catch a Titan Shifter, or even a regular Titan for that matter. They lacked the proper equipment, and the number of required soldiers. Already they had lost many lives simply trying to kill it.

Down below, Titan X had begun slamming its entire body against the tree repeatedly, causing the entire thing to shake. With no luck, it roared loudly and stepped back to take a running start. But then it surprised them. A crystal-like substance spread over its entire body as its skin hardened all over. Then it charged at the tree, slamming into it with all its might.

"Brace yourselves!" Levi shouted in warning.

The base of the tree broke, sending splinters flying, and the entire tree toppled over. Titan X roared triumphantly as its skin returned to normal.

"We're all gonna die!" Sasha cried as she and the others leapt from the tree, cables shooting out to pull them to safety.

Titan X leapt at the fleeing soldiers, catching one in its mouth and two more in its hands, one of them being Krista. As it chewed the unfortunate individual in its mouth, the soldier in its right hand stabbed at its wrist with their blade. Titan X merely squeezed them until they were crushed to a bloody pulp, then shoved them into its mouth.

"Help me!" Krista wailed as the Titan brought her up to take a bite.

"Krista!" Armin shouted.

Instead of shouting, Ymir acted. Her cables latched onto the Titan, and she voluntarily flew into its gapping mouth. She stabbed one blade down into its tongue, and the other one up into the roof of its mouth. Titan X roared, but could not close its mouth without pushing the blades in even deeper.

"Someone get her!" Ymir shouted, pushing her blades in further.

Reiner and Bertolt went for Krista. They attacked the Titan's fingers, and Krista jumped out of its head.

"Ymir!" she cried. "I'm free! Get out of there!"

That didn't seem likely since she was the only thing keeping its mouth open. But that's when Levi made a move. Flying past the Titan's face, he swung his blades, cutting open its eyes and the bridge of its nose, blinding it. Titan X howled, and Ymir was able to pull her blades free and jumped from its mouth.

"Attack it now!" Levi ordered. "Don't worry about its weak spot, just cut it wherever you can!"

Cables went flying as the soldiers went on the attack. Cuts appeared all over the Titan's body as they cut everywhere they could, a majority of the cuts being made by Levi, Mikasa, and Reiner as Titan X kept its hands over the back of its neck to protect itself.

Finally it went down. Covered in cuts and unleashing mass amounts of steam from its wounds, Titan X toppled over with a mighty  _thud_ , its arms falling uselessly at its sides.

"Now," Levi cried, "go for the nape!"

But even with it down, it still wasn't easy finding the nape in its mess of hair. And when Mikasa did manage to strike the right spot, her blade broke against the hardened skin.

"Damn it!" she swore, leaping away. She knew all they could do was wait for its skin to get soft again, and hope it happened before it healed enough to fight back once more.

But Titan X suddenly rolled over onto its back, opened its mouth, and let out a horrendous wail that caused them all to cover their ears. It lasted for several seconds, and when it finally died down, those that had heard that sound before exchanged horrified looks.

"Was that…?" Connie asked.

Sasha nodded furiously. "It was. It's the same sound."

Within a matter of seconds, the stampeding footsteps were heard. They came from all different directions, in all different shapes and sizes, dozens of Titans rushing into the clearing, responding to Titan X's wail.

Those that had survived the 57th expedition had seen this before. When they had captured the Female Titan, she too had unleashed a similar cry that had lured in other Titans. But unlike with the Female Titan, they did not begin eating Titan X, but instead fell upon it in a giant dog-pile. The soldiers retreated away from the Titans. With them all piled on top of Titan X like that, it was impossible to make a killing blow.

"Are they… protecting it?" Jean asked.

"That's certainly what it looks like," said Armin. "We've never seen that before. Usually it's every Titan for itself."

He was right. Titans normally paid no mind to each other, yet here they were, clearly protecting Titan X in its injured state. The soldiers could do nothing but watch and wait as Titan X healed from its wounds. And when the pile of Titans got up and moved away, Titan X rose to its feet, having fully regenerated.

Turning its attention to the soldiers in the trees, Titan X roared. The other Titans immediately turned away from it and charged at the trees the soldiers were in, as if obeying a command. Though clearly out of reach, they grasped at air, clawing at the bark as they tried unsuccessfully to reach for their prey in the trees.

"Great," Jean muttered, "not only can this thing call other Titans, it looks like it can control them as well."

Hange's eyes were shining with excitement. "This is incredible! What I would give to find out what makes this one tick!"

Levi raised his blades. "No time for that. Cut down as many of them as you can."

Even with their orders, the soldiers hesitated. With this many Titans this close together, and whipped up into such a frenzy, it would make fighting them extremely difficult.

This proved to be true when they went on the attack. There were just too many, and it was impossible to avoid all the giant reaching hands. Four more soldiers lost their lives before anyone even managed to land a single blow.

Closing his eyes, Levi released an aggravated sigh. This wasn't working. They'd never complete the mission this way. They had been ill prepared, and now they were outnumbered. The 134 soldiers they had brought along were now reduced to a mere 26. There were over 50 Titans down below, and Titan X was still there. There chances of finishing the mission were slim to none.

There was only one option left. They had to retreat. It was a live to fight another day scenario. They would go back to the city, gather more soldiers, and seek out Titan X once more, this time knowing what to expect. Hopefully, most of these Titans would have gone off on their own by then. Titans may have been known to gather together when humans were nearby, drawn to the scent of prey, but they weren't social creatures, and would immediately go off on their own once their prey either escaped or was devoured.

"Fall back!" Levi ordered. "We're returning to the city!"

Hange looked devastated. "Aww! But, what about…?"

"We can always find it again with the radar. For now, we need to gather reinforcements, replenish our fuel, and come up with a better battle plan." And get some answer from Dr. Pacu, he silently added. "If we keep going on like this, we're all going to die. Fall back!"

Only Hange seemed upset that they would be leaving, the others were more than happy to get away from the mysterious Titan X and the Titan herd. But as they began making their getaway, a roar from the one they had come to kill came from behind them.

At first Levi thought that it was merely angry that they were fleeing, but as it unleashed another roar, he looked back and saw that Titan X wasn't even looking at them. It remained where it was, roaring once more at nothing in particular, its cry sounding as though it were in pain.

"What the hell is wrong with it?" Connie wondered out loud.

Titan X continued to unleash roar upon agonizing roar. It gripped its stomach, the massive bulge in its belly pulsing and moving as if it were alive. Then a rip appeared over the flesh, unleashing a cloud of steam and a pool of blood as its gut tore open.

The soldiers looked on in stunned disbelief. Nothing like this had ever been reported before. They watched as something came spilling out of the Titan's stomach, landing on the ground in a steaming heap. The thing started to move, and slowly got to its feet. And as the steam dissipated and the gore covering it evaporated, the Scout Regiment stared at the newborn Titan.

Though Titan X looked every bit male, just like the rest of the Titans, they had just witnessed as it had, more or less, given birth.

The newborn Titan, though small, looked nothing like an infant, or even a child. Like other Titans, it had the appearance of a full-grown man. But it wasn't done growing, and the onlookers watched as it got bigger and bigger until it reached the 12-mater range class. Looking at it now, it would have been impossible to tell that it had been born only minutes ago.

As for Titan X, it was perfectly fine. The hole in its stomach had healed completely, not even leaving a scar or a single stretch mark. With its stomach now flat, it now looked exactly like it had in the picture Dr. Pacu had given them.

"Good God!" Jean exclaimed. "Did that thing just do what I think it did?"

Armin struggled to find his voice. "If you mean give birth to another Titan, then yeah, that's sure what it looked like."

"A reproducing Titan?" Hange cried in amazement. "This is unheard! Oh, I gotta check it out!"

"Are you out of your damn mind?" Ymir shouted at her, having no care for rank. "We gotta get out of here! Screw examining it!"

"You're kidding? We've got to study it! Captain?"

Levi gave no answer. He was just as stunned as everyone else by what he saw. Or perhaps horrified was a better word. A Titan that could reproduce? That was impossible. There had never been any indication of such a thing, ever. Dr. Pacu had told them that the fate of the world was at stake, but Levi had never imaged this.

"We're falling back!" he repeated. "It doesn't matter what it did! We don't have the manpower to take it out right now, but we will return! Now fall back!"

Hange was doubly disappointed, yet she retreated with the others. As they flew through the trees, Levi contemplated on this latest discovery. An actual reproducing Titan? This changed everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N: A shocking revelation. Now we know what makes Titan X so dangerous. It's a reproducing Titan. While that doesn't make it alone capable of wiping out humanity, it does indirectly. As long as it's popping out more and more Titans, the Scouts will never be able to wipe them all out. But that's not the only mystery about Titan X. It's also displayed more intelligence than the average Titan, the ability to harden its skin, and seemingly control other Titans. And that's only the abilities it's displayed thus far. Is it actually a human that's a Titan Shifter, or is it just very unique? And worst of, could there be more like it? There are still many more questions that need to be answered. Stay tuned to find out more.)


	4. Getting Answers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N: Seems like I blew a few minds last chapter. Good, that's what I was going for. We've got quite the mysterious Titan on our hands. It's no wonder Dr. Pacu and his team took an interest in it, and have deemed it too dangerous to be left alive. As you can probably tell from the title of this chapter, we'll be getting some answers on it. Some, but not all. Lets just see how much Erwin and Levi can get the good doctor to talk.)
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

**Chapter 4: Getting Answers**

Dr. Pacu rushed to the lobby. He'd been informed that the Scout Regiment had returned, and he was anxious to hear some good news from them regarding Titan X. From what he had been told, the loss of lives was great, but it would have been worth it if it meant the threat had been neutralized.

Opening the doors to the lobby, his smile was immediately replaced with a frown. Not only was Eren once again with Erwin and Levi, the more trusted members of the Scout Regiment were with them as well. The forlorn expressions on their faces did not suggest good news, but they could just be brooding about the number of soldiers that had been lost.

Forcing a smile on his face, he went to greet them. "Captain Levi, you've returned. Fabulous. I'm glad to see you're in good health."

Levi's expression was as cold as ever. "Yes, as well as can be considering all the lives that were lost."

Dr. Pacu did his best to try and keep his mood cheery. "Unfortunate losses, I'm sure, but still a great victory for mankind in the end. I trust that Titan X has been dealt with."

Erwin glared at him. "I'm afraid you assume wrong. Our men were overwhelmed by the target, and those that survived were forced to retreat."

The doctor's hands clenched. "That is… even more unfortunate."

"Yes," Erwin agreed, "unfortunate indeed. But the results may have been different if you had told us what we were really dealing with."

The doctor suddenly looked nervous. "I told you it was a dangerous abnormal."

"That thing was a hell of a lot more than a dangerous abnormal!" Jean snapped.

Erwin held up his hand to silence him, but did not take his eyes off the doctor. "He's out of line to speak, but he is right. The reports I received indicated that Titan X performed abilities that not even abnormals are capable of. Would you care to explain this?"

Dr. Pacu looked away. "I told you before, it's classified."

Eren felt his temper rising. "Now listen you-"

Erwin once again held up a silencing hand. "Very well, it's classified. Then at least answer this," he stared hard at the doctor, "is Titan X actually a human? Is it really a Titan Shifter?"

The doctor hesitated before turning back to him. "No, it is not. That much I can tell you."

The commander's eyes burned into the doctor's. "I don't think I believe you. Titan X has demonstrated abilities only seen performed by Titan Shifters, the Female Titan in particular."

Looking nervous, Dr. Pacu considered his words carefully before speaking. "What kind of abilities have you witnessed?"

"Captain," said Erwin, letting Levi take over. He made a mental note at how the doctor was letting them do the talking.

"Classic abnormal behavior," Levi began, "higher intelligence than an average Titan, including awareness of its own weak spot, a display of emotion, a higher reaction to pain, the ability to harden its skin, the ability to call for, and, seemingly, control other Titans." He deliberately left out the last and most important thing.

Dr. Pacu almost looked relieved. "Yes, those are abilities that Titan X has demonstrated in the past. As for controlling other Titans, yes, it does seem to have the ability to impose its will upon them."

Levi's eyes narrowed. "And you neglected to tell us this… why?"

"It was on a need to know basis."

"Well we need to know!" Erwin snapped, raising his voice. "We lost a lot of good men on that fool's errand of yours; lives that may not have been lost had you informed us of what to expect."

Dr. Pacu glared at them. "Do not place the blame of your failure on me. I warned you that Titan X was incredibly dangerous. I told you it was not your typical abnormal. I told you it was capable of wiping out all of humanity. You've seen some rather unique Titans over the years. The Colossal Titan, the Armored Titan, and after the fiasco with the Female Titan, I would have thought that you would have been prepared for anything, especially after I warned you of how dangerous it was. The fault lies with you for not taking me seriously."

It seemed he had them there. While it may have been true that he should have told them what to expect, it was also true that they should have indeed been ready for anything.

"In any case," the doctor continued, "I'll once again answer your question. Titan X is not a human. It's a Titan through and through. A very unique and unusual Titan to be sure, but a Titan all the same. It is not now, nor has it ever been a human being, and it has allegiance to no one but itself."

Erwin and Levi exchanged looks of suspicion. They both felt like the doctor was telling the truth, but also that he wasn't telling them everything. He was being far too careful with his words, as if there was something he didn't want them to know. It was time to confront him about the most concerning issue regarding the doctor's most unusual Titan.

"Lets say we believe you for now," said Levi, "there's one more thing we saw that concerns me. Now, what was it again?" He pretended to think about it. "It was a very important detail. It's on the tip of my tongue… Oh, yes, there's also the small matter that your Titan  _gave birth_  to another one right in front of us! Would you care to explain that?"

A groan escaped the doctor, and he closed his eyes. Reaching up, he removed his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming on. "You saw that, did you?"

"We all did," Armin replied. "It was very concerning, to say the least."

"And completely screwed up," Jean added.

Dr. Pacu sighed. "I had hoped that you would kill it before you witnessed that."

"So you knew?" Eren demanded furiously.

The news had been shocking to both him and Erwin. Had the reports come from anyone else, they may not have believed it. It was incredibly disturbing, and even more worrisome. A Titan that could reproduce spelled all kinds of trouble.

Dr. Pacu gave him a dirty look as he put his glasses back on. "Of course I knew. My entire team was aware of it. Why do you think it's so important to put this Titan down as soon as possible?"

Erwin's eyes narrowed. "So that's the true danger it presents to humanity. It can reproduce. It's not the Titan itself that's the major threat, but what it does that makes it such a danger."

The doctor nodded. "Yes, and no matter how many Titans your men kill off, it won't matter if Titan X keeps popping more out. Titan X was the original name we gave it, but members of my team have come to call it the Reproducing Titan."

Hange began salivating. "This could be where all Titans originated from. Tell me, how's it work? How's it reproduce? Titans can't mate; they have no reproductive organs, not even Titan X, so how's it work? Tell me, tell me, tell me!"

Sighing, Dr. Pacu decided to spill the beans. "Well, it's not the first Titan ever, like you were thinking, I can tell you that. We still don't know where Titans originate from. But as for Titan X's reproduction, truth be told, we're not entirely sure how it works ourselves. Although Titan X does indeed seem to be male like other Titans, it also seems to be asexual. That is, it reproduces without mating. This is typically only seen with microscopic single-celled organism, like bacteria.

"In a way, I suppose you could say it's more of a hermaphrodite, both male and female, or neither. It still lacks sexual organs, but it doesn't even need a mate to reproduce. Its pregnancies, for lack of a better word, happen automatically, outside of its control. Much like a queen ant, it continuously and repeatedly gives birth. An infant Titan just naturally develops on its own the moment the previous one is born, and it grows to maturity within minutes of its birth. But unlike with single-celled organism, the method of birth is not mitosis; each birthed Titan is its own individual rather than a duplicate. It's a very unnatural development, and we don't know why or how any of this works, but it happens all the same. It's all very confusing, even to us."

A feeling of foreboding came over Erwin. "How often? How often does it give birth?"

A grumble escaped the doctor. "It happens very quickly. We estimate that it gives birth to a new Titan approximately every six hours."

"S-Six…" Connie stammered. "Every six hours!"

"That's insane!" Krista cried. "We'll never be able to defeat the Titans if more are born that quickly, even if it's only one giving birth!"

"Yes," Dr. Pacu agreed. "That's why you must kill it, and kill it quickly. The longer it lives, the worse the Titan problem will become."

Though usually calm and collect, Erwin felt a moment of panic as a terrifying thought occurred to him. "The children of this Titan, are they reproducers as well?" If they were, then humanity truly was doomed for extinction. There was no telling how many Reproducing Titans there were.

But Dr. Pacu immediately elevated his fears by shaking his head. "No, thank God they are not. Any Titans it gives birth to are just ordinary Titans, though every now and then it will give birth to an abnormal."

Hange seemed more concerned with satisfying her curiosity than she was about humanity's safety. "What's the meter range of these newborn? How big do they get?"

Dr. Pacu shrugged. "It varies, and there's no pattern. How big they get seems to be completely random, although the most common ones it gives birth to are in the seven-meter range."

Though Hange had asked a noteworthy question, Erwin could care less about her desire for knowledge right now. "This is a very serious matter. Why did you not tell us about its reproduction?"

Dr. Pacu raised an eyebrow. "To what end? Its ability to reproduce won't impact you trying to kill it in any way. Informing you of it would only serve to cause you and your men to worry unnecessarily. Better you take it out and remain ignorant than having them fret over what would happen if you fail. What would it matter once its dead anyway?"

"It matters," Levi insisted.

"Indeed it does," Erwin agreed. "What if its not the only one of its kind?"

"It is," the doctor assured him.

"But you can't know that," Levi pointed out. "How or if Titans reproduce has always been a mystery. This is proof that they somehow do."

Dr. Pacu shook his head. "No, I can assure you that this is the only such case."

"Perhaps reproducers are just very rare, and this is just the first one we've ever seen."

The side of the doctor's first fist slammed against the wall. "Listen to me, I'm telling you, that's not the case! Titan X is the only one of its kind. Once you kill it, there will be no more reproducers."

"How can you possibly know that?" Mikasa demanded quietly.

"Yes," Erwin agreed. "What proof do you have to make such a claim?"

The doctor glared at him. "I'm afraid that's classified, and I'm not at liberty to discuss it. But you can take my word that Titan X is the only Reproducing Titan there is; we're certain of that. Just kill it and our problems will be over; you can go back to dealing with the Titan menace just as you always have."

Long moments of silence passed where Erwin and Dr. Pacu stared each other down. Resolution burned in the doctor's eyes while suspicion shined in the commander's, but, finally, he relented.

Closing his eyes, Erwin sighed. "Very well, but is there anything else you want to tell us about Titan X? Anything that may give us an advantage, or avoid further loss of lives?"

The doctor stubbornly looked away. "I have nothing more to say to you."

Levi stepped forward, threateningly. "I don't believe you. There's more you're not telling us."

Dr. Pacu stepped back nervously, but refused to yield. "I have told you all I intend to say, even more than I should have. The fact of the matter is that it really doesn't matter what Titan X is capable of. It's your duty to protect us from the Titans, from  _all_  Titans. So get out there and do your job before I have my security team throw you out of here. Good day to you, sir!"

With that, he turned and stormed through the double doors from whence he came. Before anyone could even consider following him, two armed security guards entered the room and stood in front of the doors. Their uniforms indicated that they were members of the Military Police. For what reason would a research facility have members of the shady Military Police as security? It only made things all the more suspicious.

Levi glanced at Erwin, ready to storm the place if given the order. "Sir?"

Erwin closed his eyes for a moment before turning his back on the two security guards. "Move out."

He marched past the others, some of them looking surprised that he was giving up. Eren was one of them. Having expected more, he went after him.

"Sir, shouldn't we interrogate him some more?"

Erwin didn't even bother to look at him. "The doctor has said all he intends to say. We won't be getting any more information from him voluntarily. If we try and force our way in to interrogate him further, his security team will fight back. Things with the Military Police are shaky enough; we don't need a full-blown war on our hands. For now, we'll focus on defeating Titan X. Now that we know what to expect, we'll be ready for it. I'll oversee this mission myself."

That meant that he wouldn't be around to 'keep an eye' on Eren. Although Eren didn't like being constantly monitored like some war criminal, he didn't want the higher ups freaking out over him being unattended either.

"But, sir, then who will be keeping watch over me?" he asked.

"I will, cadet. You'll be joining us on this mission to take down Titan X. We'll need your Titan Shifter power."

Eren stopped. "But, sir, didn't you give your word as an officer that I was to remain behind."

He didn't disagree. "I did, but certain facts were kept from me at the time of the agreement, an agreement that never would have been made had I been properly informed. In any case, my word was upheld; you did remain behind when our men went out. We are now going out for another excavation, a different mission, just with the same goal. I have made no such promise to leave you behind for this new mission. And so, you shall come along." He glanced back at him. "Are you unwilling?"

Eren acted immediately, placing his fist over his heart in a military salute. "No, sir! I will do my duty to protect the people and defeat the Titan menace!"

A small smile grazed Erwin's face. "At ease, soldier. We head out once we gain more volunteers."

"Sir, yes, sir!"

Eren hung back as the commander left him. Mikasa, Armin, and the others came up behind him. It was Jean that spoke first.

"So, I guess you get another chance to get yourself killed. Just remember that we're expendable. You're not. If we lose you, we're completely screwed."

"You don't need to tell me that! I know what's at stake! I'll be sure to kick this Titan's ass!"

Jean may have been an asshole about it, but it was his own way of motivating Eren and being sure he got his priorities in order. The problem with his method was that, most of the time, it made him come across as if he were trying to start a fight.

Jean scoffed. "Of course, cause that's all that matters to you; killing Titans."

"At least I care about my friends enough to want to free them from the Titan threat, not simply worry about how quickly I can live a life of luxury while hiding behind the lives of those around me!"

"What the…? Hey, I joined the Scouts, didn't I?"

"Yeah, maybe so, it's just a shame it took you losing your best friend to find your balls and quit being such a self-centered asshole that's only concerned about living comfortably and worrying about how fast you can run away! Maybe if you actually did your job the way your supposed to then Marco would still be alive!"

Jean winced. It was a low blow, but it was the truth. Even so, Eren realized that he had crossed the line with his words.

Jean's temper snapped, and he grabbed a fist full of his shirt. "Why you little…"

Armin quickly stepped between them. "You guys stop it. We're all under a lot of stress, and this new discovery about Titan X has us all worried, but this isn't helping."

Both looked like they still wanted to go at it. Eren was just waiting for Jean to make the first blow, but Jean just gritted his teeth in frustration and let him go.

"Whatever," he grumbled, and turned his back on him. "I don't give a damn if that suicidal maniac wants to die, but if he does, our chances of beating the Titans become as non-existent as they were before. Just keep that in mind the next time you want to go jumping into battle simply because you can."

He stormed off past the others, inwardly flinching at the cold glare Mikasa was giving him before she went over to Eren. It just pissed him off all the more to know that his crush would always side with Eren.

"You know," Connie told him, "there is such a thing as positive reinforcement. Maybe if you tried that with him instead of behaving like a jerk to him it won't cause conflict between the two of you all the time."

Jean humphed. "As if that kind of thing would get through that idiot's thick skull."

Over by Eren, Armin was trying to cool his friend's anger. "We all just want to make sure you're careful."

"I'm fine!" Eren seethed. "I know what I have to do. I swore to wipe out every last Titan, and that's what I plan to do."

Mikasa joined them at this point. "But that's the problem. You're too reckless. You want to get rid of them all so badly that you charge into battle all the time."

"Well, we're not going to beat the Titans just sitting on our asses."

"No," Mikasa agreed, "but we can't beat them if we're dead either."

Armin nodded. "She's right, and you're our best hope for victory. Jean may not have chosen his words right, but what he said is true. We're expendable, you're not."

"Don't say that!" Eren snapped. "You're not expendable! No one is!"

Mikasa placed a hand on his shoulder. "Then be sure to stay alive, so you can keep us safe, and we'll keep you safe."

Eren immediately became defensive. "I don't need protection! I can take care of myself. You guys need to protect the people that can't take care of themselves."

"Eren…" Mikasa whispered. Didn't he understand that if she lost him, she had nothing left worth living for?

"We'll do it together." Armin insisted. "We won't let this Titan X stop us, not when we've come so far."

"Of course we won't," Eren agreed. "We'll wipe them all out and reclaim this world, starting with Titan X."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N: Yeah, baby, Eren's getting in on the action. So much for the deal of keeping him out of it. But hey, if Dr. Pacu ain't talking, the Scouts ain't listening. Whatever the doctor's reason for wanting him to stay behind, it can't be more important than the fate of humanity. Just what is that stubborn old man hiding? And can Eren beat Titan X? I'll tell you this much, the upcoming fight is going to be epic.)


	5. Attack On Titan X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N: Last time we got some answers, now it's time for more action. Titan on Titan action. Uh… that didn't come out right. I just meant that Eren is gonna be fighting Titan X. Speaking of which, I titled this chapter after the show itself, but I'm sure you figured that out on your own. Now, lets see what had Dr. Pacu so intent on keeping Eren and Titan X apart.)
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

**Chapter 5: Attack On Titan X**

After the catastrophe from the last mission, most of the survivors refused to go after Titans X for a second time. And the gossip that spread made it all the more difficult for Erwin to recruit more soldiers to join him.

It took some time, but they finally had another small army, and were setting out once again, this time with Eren and the commander joining them. As far as they knew, Dr. Pacu was not aware that Eren had left the city, but even if he was, it wouldn't have mattered. They still didn't know why the doctor didn't want Eren to confront Titan X, and the man clearly wasn't going to share that bit of information.

Well, if he wouldn't be honest with them, there was no need for them to be honest with him. Besides, Eren was their best hope at defeating Titan X anyway, and with its bazaar reproduction ability, it was crucial that they took it out as quickly as possible.

Predictably, their target was not where it had been a few days ago, but they were still able to locate it with the radar. This time, when they tracked it down, they found themselves in a city that had been abandoned when Wall Maria fell to the Colossal and Armored Titans. There were other Titans randomly walking around that could prove to be a problem in the upcoming battle, but that's what the Scout Regiment was there for.

Marching among the empty houses, Titan X wandered about with the rest of its kind. It had a bulge in its stomach once more, though not as large as the last time they saw it, indicating that the Titan fetus growing inside it still had a while to go before it was ready to be born.

"That's Titan X?" Eren commented.

Armin nodded. "Yeah, that's it."

Eren's gaze moved down to the Titan's baby bulge. "And it's carrying… in its stomach?"

"Yes," Mikasa replied, "somehow it's having a baby Titan."

"Well," Armin added, "not really a baby. When the Titan is born, it already looks like an adult, only smaller, but it grows to a normal Titan's height in less than a minute. It's still completely confounding how it happens, especially since Titan X seems to be male."

Eren continued looking at the Titan. "It doesn't make sense, how can that thing reproduce?"

"It doesn't matter," Mikasa told him. "We need to take it down. We'll worry about the details later."

Eren's eyes narrowed. "You're right. Just leave it to me."

Almost as if he heard the boy's declaration, Erwin addressed the rest of the troops. "Alright, men! You know what to do! Our target is in sight! It is our duty to keep the other Titans off Cadet Yeager while he deals with the target! Lets put an end to this threat!"

This was met by cheers from the soldiers, but those that had encountered Titan X before remained silent. Erwin couldn't blame them, not with the massacre they had walked into before. Once this was over, he was going to get some answers from Dr. Pacu; he owed that to the men that gave their lives to try and stop it.

As the formation separated from Eren, only Mikasa and Armin remained with him.

"Good luck, Eren!" the latter called.

"Be safe!" Mikasa told him, and the two of them steered their horses away from him as well.

Eren continued charging forward, heading down the road that led straight to the dreaded Titan he had been told about and was now meant to destroy. Keeping hold of the reigns, he dared to stand up on his charging horse's back, hoping to give the animal time to get away.

Bringing his hand to his mouth, he bit down hard enough to draw blood as he jumped in the air. It hurt like hell, but it triggered the reaction for him to summon the monster inside him. In a flash of light, the giant body materialized around him, seeming to appear out of thin air. Eren himself suddenly found himself attached to a fleshy cocoon, wrapped up in a Titan's body.

On the outside, the monster that had come to be known as the Rogue Titan rose to its full 15-meter height. Its sudden appearance drew the attention of Titan X, who had at first been distracted by all the soldiers that had suddenly appeared and begun fighting its fellow Titans. With blonde bangs hanging over its eyes, its gaze locked onto the Rogue Titan.

Eren stared back, his green eyes burning with hatred. He couldn't help but notice that Titan X's own eyes seemed to resemble miniature suns, the irises starting out orange around the pupils and blending into yellow. The patches of missing skin around the monster's eyes reminded him far too much of the Female Titan, sending another wave of burning rage through him as he remembered the betrayal of someone he had once called a trusted friend and ally, only to have her mercilessly slaughter countless people in an attempt to kidnap him. He roared his fury at the Titan, expressing his hatred towards it and all of its kind.

Titan X stared at Eren's Titan form curiously, seeming to be lost in its thoughts, if Titans were even capable of thinking any thoughts beyond those of eating humans. It sniffed the air once, and then a second time, harder. Its eyes widened, and it now looked at Eren with greater interest. Closing its eyes, it sniffed a third time, breathing deeply of the Rogue Titan's scent.

Its eyes snapped open, and it opened its mouth, unleashing a monstrous roar. Eren roared back as Titan X suddenly charged at him. He rushed forward to meet it; ready to tear the beast apart for all the lives it had taken. The ground shook as the two Titans stomped towards each other, Eren's fist clenching as they came within touching distance, and he threw a punch.

Titan X didn't seem to have expected the blow at all, and it ran right into Eren's fist. The impact knocked it completely off its feet, and it fell flat on its back with a mighty  _thud_.

"Holy shit, did you see that?" Connie exclaimed as he swung through the air. "He totally punched that thing out."

Eren turned towards the fallen Titan. Roaring furiously, he brought his fist down towards the Titan's face, only to smash his hand on the ground as it rolled to the side. Titan X had gotten to its hands and knees, crouching down like a cat ready to pounce. And pounce it did, springing at Eren, wrapping its arms and legs around him as its sharp teeth chomped down on his shoulder.

Eren roared as Titan X bit deeply into his flesh. The Titan body he was wearing may not have been his, but he still felt everything it felt. Fortunately, Titan regeneration happened quickly, and his smashed hand healed. He began slamming his fist into the Titan's side repeatedly, but Titan X refused to let go, and Eren's hand was once again busted as the Titan hardened its skin where he had been punching.

With another roar, Eren leapt forward, bringing Titan X to the ground and pressing his full weight on the beast. Titan X's hold on him loosened, and Eren pulled away, losing a good chunk of flesh from his shoulder in the process, a cloud of steam bursting from the wound.

With one hand going to his shoulder, Eren roared into the face of the Titan beneath him. That was when Titan X struck, his own fist colliding with Eren's jaw, made worse by the four spikes on its knuckle. With his cheek torn and his jaw broken and dislocated, Eren went down. Titan X sat up and leapt at Eren again, but he lifted his legs to defend himself and kicked out when the Titan landed on him, knocking it into the houses.

Getting to his feet, Eren marched over to Titan X as it tried to stand. Grabbing it by the hair, he pushed it back down, then lifted its head and slammed its face into the ground.

" _Come on!"_  Eren growled from within the Rogue Titan's body.  _"Get up! Show me what kind of dangerous monster you really are!"_  He began kicking it in the side when it attempted to rise.  _"Show me why so many good people had to die! Show me what makes you such a major threat to the world!"_

As he aimed another kick, Titan X's skin hardened, and Eren's ankle broke against it, the bone protruding from the skin. Titan X suddenly lunged for Eren's other leg while he was off balance, its jaws biting into it. Eren snarled as Titan X thrashed its head about, tearing off a mouthful of flesh, bone, and tendons. With both legs rendered useless, Eren toppled over backwards. Titan X was instantly on top of him, its jaws snapping.

Reaching out, Eren's fingers wrapped around the Titan's throat, keeping it back, even as Titan X clawed at his face and chest, trying to get closer. Down lower, flesh and bone knitted back together as Eren's leg regenerated. Once they healed, he did a backwards summersault, throwing Titan X off of him. He jumped to his feet and fell upon his prey. Titan X was lying on its back, and Eren grabbed it by the hair again, lifting it into a sitting position.

Throwing a punch, he aimed for the Titan's face, and it opened its mouth wide and chomped down on Eren's fist. He howled as his entire hand up to his wrist trapped in Titan X's jaws. He tried to pull his hand back, but the monster only bit down harder, biting off Eren's entire hand. Snarling, he threw another punch, but Titan X held up its arms to block, hardening them in the process, and the bones in Eren's remaining hand shattered.

Titan X threw its own punch, and Eren backed away. Titan X was now on the attack, and Eren dodged and ducked around the punches and swipes. Though it seemed that Titan X could fight, its movements were erratic and uncontrolled, much like a wild animal lashing out.

The bones in Eren's left hand finished repairing themselves and he threw another punch. Titan X avoided it, and Eren stumbled past it. He felt the Titan's arms wrap, around him from behind in a clumsy but strong bear hug. Eren struggled, feeling Titan X's breath against the back of his neck, directly over where he was inside the Rogue Titan. If it bit him there, it could devour his real body.

In retaliation, he slammed his elbow into the Titan's gut. Feeling its grip loosen slightly, he repeated the motion several more times before Titan X hardened the skin on its stomach, and Eren's elbow broke against it. Growling, he leaned forward, then slammed his head back against Titan X's face.

That made it let go, but as Eren turned to face it again, he was hit by a kick in the side from a hardened leg. The blow broke his hip, and was immediately followed by a punch to the face that sent him flying and crashing into more houses. Titan X roared at him and turned to another house. Reaching for it, it tore the entire roof off the structure and threw it at Eren, who was immediately knocked back down.

As Titan X stomped towards him, a fellow soldier decided to go for the back of its neck while it was distracted. But as they approached, Titan X's hand shot out, swatting the soldier aside and smashing them against another house.

"No, damn it!" Erwin shouted. "I told everyone to stay back!"

He quickly dodged as another Titan lunged at him, going over its head and carving out its weak spot.

Eren snarled furiously as he witnessed the death of yet another brave soldier. Pushing aside the wreckage of the roof that had been thrown at him, he jumped to his feet.

Charging at Titan X, he tackled it to the ground.  _"You son of a bitch! How many of us must you kill, you bastard?"_

He brought his head down, slamming his forehead into the Titan's face. It hurt him as well, yes, but it caused much greater damage to Titan X, and he did it again.

" _Die!"_  he seethed, slamming his head into the Titan's face again.  _"Die! Die! Just fucking die!"_

He continued slamming his head into Titan X until its face was completely smashed in. Raising his fist, he extended his index and middle fingers, and brought them down into the Titan's eyes, gauging them out and blinding it.

Titan X howled in pain, but Eren ignored it as he grasped the Titan's smashed in face and lifted it into the air. He began running down the street, dragging Titan X along with him, slamming it into houses as he did so.

" _Look what you did!"_  he raged.  _"These were peoples' homes! Whole families were torn apart by you and your kind! Just look what you did!"_

Titan X's hand shot out and wrapped around Eren's throat, its fingers hardening to give it a more powerful grip and allowing it to break the skin and dig its fingers deeply into his neck. Eren's gaze shifted to Titan X's face, and he saw between the gaps of his fingers that the Titan's eyes had healed.

Kicking out, Titan X's foot caught Eren's as he continued to run, tripping him. They both went down, crashing into more houses in the process. Having pulled free, Titan X sat up, a distorted roar escaping it as its face reconstructed to heal the damage that had been caused to it.

Eren got up and lunged at Titan X, tackling it to the ground again. His missing hand had finally finished growing back, and he grasped the sides of Titan X's head and began slamming it against the ground. A pool of steaming blood began to gather from where Eren continuously slammed its head against the ground, wailing all the while. Titan X's fists slammed into Eren's sides, but he ignored the pain as he focused on busting open the Titan's skull.

Finally, Titan X gave up on punching him and instead grabbed Eren's wrists, attempting to pry his hands away. It managed to force his hands off its head, and Eren watched as its facial features finished healing, anger burning in its eyes. A roar escaped it, and then the unthinkable happened.

There was a familiar flash of light, like lightning striking, and Eren found himself flying through the air. A cloud of steam covered everything, emitting from where the flash of light occurred. Even among the rampaging Titans, the soldiers were distracted by what had happened.

Something massively large rose up from out of the steam, something bigger than anything they had ever seen before. A new Titan now emerged from where Titan X once stood. Resembling the Colossal Titan and Hidden Titan, it completely lacked skin, exposing its blood red muscles. Its upper torso, and the areas from its wrists to elbows and shins to knees were covered in the same type of material as the Armored Titan. Like the Colossal and Hidden Titan, its face resembled a corpse, its exposed teeth sharp canines, and its eyes glowing yellow. Steam rose from every part of its body in a never-ending cloud.

The members of the Scout Regiment could only stare at the giant Titan in horror.

"What in the hell is that thing?" Jean muttered.

"It looks like a… Super Colossal Titan," said Connie.

Sasha was literally shaking in her boots. "Look at the size of it. It's got to be at least 80 meters tall. Even the Colossal Titan was only 60 meters."

"But how is that possible?" Armin asked, seeming to be talking to himself. "Did Titan X really just turn into that thing? How can a Titan also be a Titan Shifter?"

Eren was wondering the same thing, but didn't have time to dwell on it as the transformed Titan X lifted its giant foot. He leapt out of the way as it came stomping down. He lunged at the giant leg, wrapping his arms around the massive limb and squeezing with all his might, the exposed muscle burning his skin. Yet even at his full 15-meter height, he only came up to the Titan's knee. Any damage he could hope to cause would be minimal at best. For all intents and purposes, he might as well have been an ordinary seized human fighting an ordinary sized Titan without any ODM Gear to aid him.

Titan X brought its hand down, and Eren jumped off its leg as its hand slapped against it. Titan X's other leg shot out, kicking Eren and sending him flying. He came down, crashing and bouncing into several houses. Bones shattered and wounds tore across his body as his momentum stopped.

The ground shook as Titan X marched over to him. Even buried under all the rubble, the steam from his wounds gave away his position. As Titan X dropped to its knees and began shifting through the destroyed houses, Eren jumped to his feet, roaring. Titan X roared back at him in a much louder voice and threw a punch. Its fist crashed into the ground, cracking it open as Eren jumped into the air, landing on its arm.

Just as he had with the Colossal Titan when it destroyed Wall Rose, he ran up the length of Titan X's arm. Titan X reached for him with its other hand, but in this form, its movements were slow and clumsy. Eren leapt over the reaching hand, going for Titan X's face. His fist buried into what would have been the Titan's cheek if it had any skin, colliding instead with its teeth, knocking a few free. While wisps of steam had been escaping through the spaces between its teeth before, the openings Eren's fist had created unleashed an entire burning cloud, causing burns to appear over his body.

Eren recoiled from the heat on instinct and went tumbling down the giant Titan's body. His burns were already healing, but they still hurt like hell. He rolled away as Titan X tried to flatten him with an open palm. Reaching for one of the Titan's large fingers, he bent it back until the bone snapped.

Pulling back its hand, Titan X rose to its feet again. It stared at its bent finger, watching as it healed, its missing teeth already growing back in. Eren charged at its leg while it was distracted and threw a punch, his fist colliding with the hard substance that covered its shin, breaking the bones in his hand and arm. The pain just pissed him off all the more, and he kneed the hard shell, shattering his kneecap, but not even scratching the Titan's shin.

A giant skinless hand came down, swatting Eren aside, and he crashed into some more houses. As Titan X turned towards his fallen form, Eren stayed still, seemingly unconscious. The giant Titan approached and crouched down to stare at Eren's unmoving form, then its large hand reached for him.

Eren suddenly sat up, grasping a wooden pillar from the destroyed house, and threw it at Titan X. An agonized roar echoed across the land as it pierced its right eye. Eren quickly jumped to his feet and ran around the Titan while it was agonizing over its punctured eye. Jumping onto its back, he began climbing up its superheated body. He would tear open the nape of its neck with his bare hands and drag the real Titan X out of there, then kill it.

The steam coming off the Titan's body made it difficult to see, and so he didn't notice the giant hand until it had flattened him against the skinless body. Fingers curled around him, pinning his arms to his sides, and pulled him away. Eren struggled, but couldn't escape its powerful grip.

Bringing Eren in front of it, Titan X's other hand grasped his lower body to stop his legs from kicking. With the wooden pillar still sticking out of its eye, the Titan stared down at him, roaring loudly.

"Eren!" Mikasa shouted.

Seeing him I peril, she threw caution to the wind with the Titan she was currently fighting. As it lunged at her, mouth open to bit down, she went straight through the wet cavern. As its jaws closed on her, her blades danced around her and sliced open the back of its head. Spinning once, she carved out the weak spot on its neck, then sent out her cables to carrying her towards Eren.

But he was too far away, and there was no way she would make it in time, not if Titan X decided to eat its captive. Eren also thought that he was indeed about to become lunch, but Titan X did not eat him. Instead it squeezed him tightly, and Eren felt his insides rupture and all the bones in his arms, legs, and torso get crushed.

Eren vomited blood, the pain unbearable. Titan X carelessly dropped him, and he fell to the ground in a bloody broken heap, unable to move. Steam rose from his body, and though his regeneration had kicked in, it would take some time, probably a few minutes, for him to heal from such extensive damage. For now, he was completely at Titan X's mercy.

But Titan X did not move to finish him off. Instead, it laid face down on the ground beside him. The back of its neck burst open as the real Titan X emerged from the giant body, tearing itself free. It leapt down from the massive form as the skinless body began to evaporate, and walked over to its prey. Eren struggled to move, but his body wasn't nearly healed enough. All he could do was flop around uselessly like a fish out of water as Titan X closed in on him.

"Eren, no!" Mikasa cried as she raced towards him as fast as her ODM Gear could take her. She was closing the gap and would reach them soon, but it didn't look like it would be soon enough as Titan X began to lift Eren's broken body.

Turning him over to expose the nape of his neck, Titan X bit down into it and tore away the flesh. Eren's real body was exposed to its gaze, and Titan X reached for him, tearing him out of the Rogue Titan's body.

Feeling weak and disorientated, Eren struggled to get his bearings. After blinking a few times, he realized that he was in Titan X's hand. He began thrashing about, but there was no escape, he was as helpless as his mother had been in the Smiling Titan's hands.

Was this how it would end for him? Was he finally going to become Titan chow? After everything that had happened, all he had been through, was this how he would die, just another victim of these monsters? Had Dr. Pacu been right, was Titan X going to be the one to end him?

Looking up into Titan X's face, his fear evaporated to be replaced with pure rage. The Titan was simply staring at him, and it pissed him off to no end.

"Well, go on and get it over with, you damn bastard!" he shouted up at it. "I hope I give you indigestion! Just do it already! Eat me, and choke on my bones!"

But Titan X did not move to eat him. Instead, it lifted its other hand and placed it on its stomach. Fingers dug into flesh, and Eren watched in complete bewilderment as the Titan tore its own stomach open. A wave of heat washed over Eren as a cloud of steam and a flood of blood came pouring out of the Titan's gut. What in the hell was it doing?

Reaching into its own stomach, Titan X felt around inside its body. Finding what it was seeking, it pulled it out. A feeling of nausea ran through Eren as he looked at the Titan fetus grasped in Titan X's hand. It carelessly tossed the fetus aside, the little body unmoving and already beginning to break down and evaporate.

Eren was at a complete loss as to what he had just witnessed. Had Titan X just performed some sort of half-assed abortion on itself? If so, why? What for? So confused was he by this that he actually forgot his anger. That is, until Titan X began bringing him forward.

Eren's eyes widened as he realized what Titan X was going to do. It was about to stick him inside its stomach, into the very womb it just torn the Titan fetus out of. The thought repulsed him, and, for some reason, frightened him even more than the thought of being eaten alive.

His struggles renewed, if possible, even more so than before. "What the hell are you doing? Sick freak, don't put me in there! Get the fuck away from me!"

But he couldn't stop it. The opening was big enough for Titan X to fit its entire hand inside, and him along with it. The Titan's stomach was already healing. Once Eren was inside and it healed around him, he would be trapped. Would he even be able to move around enough in there to become the Rogue Titan again once he regained his strength? He was already drained to the point of unconsciousness.

There was movement out of the corner of his eye, and suddenly Mikasa was there. Her blades flew around wildly, and a shower of blood sprayed over Eren. Titan X's grip went slack as Mikasa severed the tendons in its hand.

Eren slipped from the Titan's fingers, and Mikasa grabbed him before he hit the ground. She dragged him away through the air, away from Titan X. It snarled angrily and reached for them. Mikasa swung her blade with her free hand, slicing its fingers. Titan X roared furiously and lunged after them, reaching out. Its fingers narrowly missed them, and it fell flat on its stomach.

They managed to gain distance as Titan X climbed to its feet, but once it was standing, it raced after them.

Eren felt his remaining strength rapidly draining as he fought to stay conscious. Seeing Titan X running after them, he barely managed to say, "Mikasa… its… coming…" before finally passing out.

"Eren, hold on!" she told him, speeding towards a group of soldiers.

Titan X was still coming, but a pain filled roar escaped it as Levi appeared and went on the attack. He cut the tendons in one of its ankles, and the muscles in the back of its other leg. Titan X went down, the back of its neck hardening to defend its weak spot before Levi could even consider striking it there. It pushed itself up enough to make a grab for Levi. His blades danced around him, slicing off its reaching fingers before he pulled away.

A growl escaped the fallen Titan as the captain retreated, and it turned its gaze back to Eren and Mikasa in the distance. With its legs unable to let it stand until they healed, it used its arms to spring through the air after them. Mikasa had taken Eren over the rooftops of houses, and Titan X made to follow, but as it landed on a house, the structure was unable to hold up the weight, and it collapsed beneath the beast.

With their pursuer temporarily subdued for now, Mikasa settled on a roof to check on Eren. Looking him over, he appeared to be unharmed, but he was still unconscious, which was normal for when he left the Rogue Titan's body.

Someone landed on the roof beside her, and she looked up to see Erwin. "How is he?"

She looked back down at Eren's still form. "He's alive, but out."

"Hmm," Erwin muttered. "Very well, we're retreating for now. He can't fight in this condition." He looked up at the sky. "It'll be night soon anyway. We don't know how that'll affect Eren's Titan form."

This was something Mikasa had considered too. Titans seemed to obtain energy from the sun. Though that didn't affect Eren while he was human, it might drain his strength in his Titan form.

Some more soldiers joined them on the roof. "Sir, what about the target?"

Erwin looked over to Titan X, who was currently swatting at other soldiers that had gone to distract it while Mikasa got Eren away.

Erwin sighed. "The circumstances have changed. For some reason, it seems this Titan wants Eren. We need to know why. We also need to know what else its capable of. We thought we knew what to expect after our last confrontation with the target, but this new ability to Titan Shift changed things even more. We're return to Wall Rose for now." His fists clenched. "And its time we got some answers. I'll make Dr. Pacu tell us everything there is to know about our target, even if I have to beat the answers out of him."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N: Whew, that was unexpected. A Titan that's also a Titan Shifter. They didn't see that coming. Too bad, because Eren was doing a good job against it too, for the most part. Until the thing transformed of course. And what was up with it trying to stick Eren inside itself? Freaky. Now, I know this chapter kind of ended the same way as Chapter 3, with them retreating back to the Wall to get some answers. Well this time Erwin is intent on getting all the answers, whether Dr. Pacu wants to give them or not. Next chapter is going to be a very interesting one as the truth is revealed.)


	6. Titanic Truths

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N: I'm about to seriously blow some minds in this chapter. Some stuff you guys may have predicted, some stuff you probably didn't. I tried explaining things the best as I could, but you guys will probably have a lot of questions. Feel free to ask them. Also, it appears I was wrong, the story is going to be longer than about 30,000 words, so that's pretty sweet. By the way, I love this chapter title. Sometimes puns work out wonderfully)
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

**Chapter 6: Titanic Truths**

There was a disturbance in the hall, and Dr. Pacu hurried to get there. He had been informed by his security team that there were intruders in the facility, and it didn't bode well for him and his team. They could ruin everything.

Bursting into the next room, he saw that his suspicions were correct. Erwin, Levi, and the members of the Scout Regiment were here, having just finished subduing his security team. And judging by the angry looks on their faces, things once again had not gone well with Titan X.

Clearing his throat, the doctor marched over to the commander and captain. "Commander Erwin, just what is the meaning of this? How dare you attack my security team! They're members of the Military Police!"

Erwin glared at him. "That a mere research team would need Military Police personal for anything is suspicious enough. But that's not why we're here. We've come for answers."

Dr. Pacu crossed his arms. "A simple request to see me would have been sufficient."

Levi raised an eyebrow. "And give you time to think about how to dodge our questions again? Not likely."

"We encountered Titan X again," Erwin told him coldly. "And before you ask, no, we did not manage to kill it. Once again we were caught off guard by its unique abilities. It's time you told us what exactly it is we're dealing with."

Dr. Pacu's eyes narrowed, and he looked away. "I don't have to tell you anything. You just need to do your job."

There was movement from Levi. The next things anyone knew, he had grabbed the doctor by his shirt and slammed him up against the wall. "Enough with your games. No more lies, no more half-truths, no more secrets. It's time you told us what's really going on here."

The doctor was clearly uneasy, but he put up a brave front, and he smacked the captain's hands away. "Unhand me! And I told you what we know. What else do you want me to say?"

"For starters," Erwin began, "you could tell us why you neglected to let us know that this thing can transform into a Colossal Titan."

The doctor's eyes widened, and he seemed genuinely surprised by this. "You actually witnessed this event?"

"Hell yeah," said Connie. "It was huge too; 80 meters tall."

"And it had some of the exoskeleton the Armored Titan has on certain parts of its body." Armin added.

"We've been calling it the Super Colossal Titan."

The doctor rested his chin in his hand thoughtfully. "Incredible. So it had that ability after all."

Erwin studied him carefully. "Are you telling us that you were unaware of this ability?"

A slightly guilty look crossed the doctor's face. "Well, we never actually witnessed it ourselves, but examining its DNA suggested that it was capable of it. It must have inherited this ability."

"Inherited?"

"It's classified."

Erwin's eyes narrowed. "So you at least knew it was a possibility."

"We suspected it."

"Then you lied to us when you told us it wasn't a Titan Shifter," Eren accused.

The doctor glared at him. "You're out of line, boy. And no, I did not lie. I specifically said that Titan X was not human. That was what you meant when you asked if it was a Titan Shifter, isn't it? A human that turns into a Titan. Just like I said, that is not the case."

He had a point, even if it was a lame excuse; the doctor was clearly good at choosing his words carefully. What secrets could he possibly be guarding that would cause him to hide such important things?

"Very well then," said Erwin, "tell us this. Why does Titan X want Eren so badly?"

Dr. Pacu's whole body became tense. "What do you mean?"

"Enough with your secrecy! While on the mission, the target tried very hard to get to Eren. When it did, it tore the fetus out of its stomach and tried to insert Eren inside. Why?"

"You let them meet?" the doctor cried in horror. "No! You gave me your word that you would leave him behind!"

"Erwin nodded. "And so we did, on the previous excavation, which was the only one I agreed to leave him behind on. And with the new intel regarding our target, Eren was our best chance at defeating it, so we brought him along on the most recent mission, which I did not promise to leave him behind on. You see, doctor, you're not the only one that's good at using words to your benefit."

"You damn fool!" Dr. Pacu shouted, splitting his knuckles as he punched the wall. "You've doomed us all! There was a reason why they were never supposed to meet! Titan X has his scent now! It'll track him down no matter where he goes! It'll come right over the Wall and seek him out!"

A silent dread fell upon the Scouts. They exchanged uneasy looks, some of them glancing at Eren nervously.

Erwin did his best to maintain his composure. "How come? What is it about Eren that makes this Titan want him so much? Is it because he's a Titan Shifter?"

The doctor's fists clenched. "I… can't tell you. It's classified."

Levi whipped out a blade and pointed it at the doctor. "Enough of this. If Titan X is really on its way here, then we have no time to spare. From what you've told us, we have more than enough evidence to accuse you of treason. Your behavior and the secrets you're keeping all lead us to believe that you're actually working with the enemy. I'm well within my rights to kill you for treason right now. So start talking, or you won't live long enough to see your precious Titan X come over the Wall."

Dr. Pacu stared at the blade, seemingly having an internal debate. The fact that he was still considering keeping his silence, even under the threat of death, revealed that whatever secrets he was keeping must be of the utmost importance.

Finally, he sighed in resignation, his shoulders drooping. "Well, at this point there doesn't seem to be any further need to remain silent any longer. Very well, I'll tell you everything. Come, follow me to the back."

He motioned for them to follow him. When he got to the door, he paused for a moment and looked back at them. "Just remember that it was you who insisted on this. Knowledge may be a powerful thing, but once you learn something, you can't unlearn it. I was being serious when I said that there are some things that you're better off not knowing."

But Erwin looked determined. "That may be, but this is something we need to know, whether we want to or not. So if you'll kindly stop stalling…"

The doctor sighed again. "As you wish. Just be prepared for the worst."

He walked through the doors, and the others followed him. Right off the bat, they were astounded by what they saw. Men and women in white lab coats were at different stations, all of them working furiously on different types of ancient technology, but most either ignored them or didn't even realize that they were there at all.

"What is all this?" Eren asked.

The doctor glanced at him. "I mentioned that our research includes repairing, reconstructing, and duplicating ancient technology. These are some of the things our ancestors used. This, for example," he picked up a device, "is called a telephone. Our ancestors used these to communicate with anyone anywhere in the world. And this," he patted what looked like a larger and much more complex version of a radar, "is called a computer. Our ancestors used these for various purposes."

"What about this?" Armin asked, pointing to a very large mechanical object.

"Ah," Dr. Pacu replied, clearly proud of his team's work. "That is what's known as a car. Our ancestors used them to travel around in. The outer cover is still missing, but we're making tremendous progress on it."

"Amazing," Armin muttered. "I read about these things. Supposedly, they can go faster than any horse."

Jean scoffed. "That hunk of junk? I doubt it."

Levi cleared his throat. "This is all very fascinating, but it's not what we came here for."

A slight frown crossed the doctor's face. Had he been hoping to distract them with his team's projects? "Of course, my apologies. I take great pride in my work, and when an admirer comes along…" He shook his head. "I'm doing it again. Come, you'll soon have the answers you seek."

He walked them through the laboratory, and over to a door in the back. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a key and unlocked the door. Taking a deep breath, he walked through it.

"Gentlemen, ladies," he said to the people inside the room, "we have a condition D alert. The Scout Regiment is here, and I've agreed to tell them the truth."

A few words of complaint rose up, but the doctor silenced them before turning towards his guests. "Brace yourselves."

He motioned for them to enter. When they did, those in front stopped so suddenly that the people behind them ran into them.

"God in Heaven…" Erwin muttered. "What the hell is going on here?"

Dr. Pacu came up beside him. "You want to know how we know so much about Titan X? Well, the truth is that we created it."

The shocking statement didn't have nearly the kind of reaction as it would have had a few seconds ago, not with the sights before them as evidence. While the last room was filled with technology, this one was all about biology, Titan biology from the looks of it. Numerous tanks and tests tubes filled the room, many of them containing certain organs and body parts. The closest tank held the hand of a Titan that must have been in the 10-meter range, the fingers twitching. And it wasn't the only one; many organs and body parts in other tanks seemed to be moving, or even fully functioning. And, perhaps the most shocking of all, were two large cages in the back, the first containing what appeared to be a two foot mutant cockroach, the other a four foot mutant rat.

The look on Hange's face made her look like a kid a Christmas. "Oooooh! Look at this!" She ran over to a tank, which contained what appeared to be a giant heart, still beating. "What is all this? It's incredible!"

Erwin didn't quite share her opinion, and he turned to Dr. Pacu in outrage. "What the hell is all this? What are you people doing here?

The doctor closed his eyes. "We're trying to save humanity, sir."

"Save humanity?" Jean exclaimed. "It looks like you're trying to create more Titans!"

"And did I hear you correctly when you said you created Titan X?" Levi asked.

Sasha screamed. "Look, they even have one!"

She pointed to the other side of the room here a third cage held a chained up three-meter Titan, its mouth forcibly held open by a type of brace so it couldn't bite down.

Hange was busy rubbing her cheek against the glass of the tank containing the beating heart. "This is amazing! How are you keeping these body parts from evaporating?"

Dr. Pacu adjusted his glasses. "Because they're technically still alive. Our ancestors had mastered the art of preserving organs and other body parts after they've been removed. Sadly, the parts you see before you never seem to last long before dying. Our own technology is just far too limited. The longest lasting one lasted for about three weeks."

Erwin turned to him. "Doctor, you had best start explaining yourself right now, and there better be a damn fine reason for all this."

The doctor crossed his arms. "I understand your concern, sir, but to truly explain, I'll have to start from the beginning." He walked over to a tank and stared at what seemed to be the lungs of a Titan, watching as they worked to breath in the tank's fluid. "Our primary goal has always been the survival of the human race, and we're willing to do whatever it takes to see that it endures. The technology you saw in the other room is meant to aid us in our survival and help defeat the Titans. But in order to fight Titans, we need soldiers. Unfortunately, most people are too afraid to take up the cause, and those that do tend not to live very long." He glanced at Erwin and Levi. "I'm sure you know first hand exactly what I mean."

That much was certain. Every time they went out for an excavation, they always came back with less soldiers than they went out with.

Sighing, Dr. Pacu turned his back to the tank. "Without soldiers to fight, we're nothing more than cattle waiting for the day we're to be devoured. But we refuse to allow that to happen. And one day, our research came up with a possible solution."

He reached up and ran a finger over the tank. "Our ancestors developed a way to create new life forms. And by creating new life forms, I don't mean by breeding. What I speak of is a method that our ancestors called cloning."

The last word was lost to the Scouts.

"Cloning?" Armin repeated. "What's that?"

Sighing impatiently, the doctor adjusted his glasses. "Cloning is the process of creating an exact duplicate of another organism using DNA; be it a drop of blood, a bit of hair, a piece of skin, a bone fragment, whatever. From this bit of DNA, our ancestors were able to, shall we say, grow a copy of whoever or whatever the DNA came from. This process became known as cloning. The duplicate was called a clone."

Several moments of silence passed as the Scouts took in this information. Before the Titans first appeared and society fell, the term 'cloning' was a well-known term that even children were aware of, though it was normally associated with science fiction. But in this day and age, with so much knowledge lost since society's fall, the process of cloning was just one of the many things forgotten as time passed. With such limited knowledge of the past, it wasn't any wonder that they found such a thing hard to believe.

"Bullshit," Jean muttered. "Growing a copy of something? That's ridiculous."

The doctor glared at him. "But of course, you would know better than I would since I've dedicated my whole life to learning about our ancestors' way of life while you've dedicated yours to killing Titans."

Jean cut his eyes at him, still looking doubtful. "You're telling me that with a drop of my blood, or a bit of my hair, you could create an exact duplicate of me?"

"That is exactly what I'm saying. Our research has revealed that the first true successful cloning attempt took place in the year 1997 before society fell to the Titans. A sheep named Dolly was the subject, and she was perfectly replicated."

Armin's eyes were as wide as saucers. "They actually pulled it off? They really did this cloning thing?"

Dr. Pacu nodded. "That is what the records we dug up indicated. And with this discovery came an idea, a way to defeat the Titans, no matter how long it took. So we kept digging, kept searching, and after a long time and a lot of research, we uncovered the secret method of cloning that our ancestors used."

Something changed within the doctor as he spoke. A madness seemed to creep up in his eyes as he continued speaking of his work. "Imagine if we could master the act of cloning. We could replicate our soldiers. Anyone that lost their life to a Titan while on a mission could simply be cloned. Forget about simply replenishing our numbers, we could create an entire army!"

He looked to Levi. "Captain Levi, you're the best there is at killing Titans. Just imagine a hundred copies of you! There would also be no loss even if you did meet your end in battle, or if you became crippled, or simply got too old to continue fighting if you were fortunate enough to live long enough! We'd just create a copy of you! And not just you! We'd have an unlimited supply of soldiers! No matter how many Titans there are in the world, no matter how long it takes, we would eventually kill them all off! Just think about it!"

A wave of revulsion went through Eren. On some level, he could see where the doctor was coming from, and how it would benefit society, but there was something about it that seemed so wrong. Just the thought alone that a person could be  _copied_ , like they were nothing more than a mere object, did not sit well with him. And from what the doctor was saying, it also made it sound like people would become disposable since 'another one' could simply be grown, like it was a simply matter of going to the store to purchase a replacement item that had broken. People were not replaceable, and they should not be 'copied', as if who they were didn't matter.

Looking at the others, he saw that they greatly disapproved as well. There were looks of disgust and loathing at what the doctor was suggesting. Each and every one of them was irreplaceable, and no duplicate, no matter how much it looked and acted like the original, could ever be them or replace them. Anyone who thought otherwise was a fool, and had no regard for another person's life or who they were.

Though Erwin and Levi remained stoic, the look in their eyes showed that they did not approve of what the doctor was saying.

"So," Levi replied, "how has this whole cloning thing been working out for you?"

The excitement left the doctor's face, and his smile was replaced by a frown. "Unfortunately, discovering the method of how cloning was done and actually pulling it off are two very different things. The process is very difficult and extremely complicated. To this day, we've only managed to grow specific organs before the sample died. As of now, every attempt has been met with utter failure. We can't create enough of a body to even consider the sample of being alive. At most, we'll have a few frozen organs on hand if anyone should need a transplant. Attempting to grow it any further results in the sample dying. This seems to be because we can't grow the sample fast enough before it dies from the lack of other body parts it needs in order to function. I suppose that's to be expected though since our technology is nowhere near as advanced as our ancestors' was."

Sighing, he closed his eyes and rested his head back against the glass tank, lamenting his failures.

Erwin seemed to be becoming impatient. "This is all very fascinating, but what does it have to do with Titan X?"

A humorless chuckle escaped the doctor. "Of course. Forgive me; I was lost in thought. I brought up our attempts at cloning because it's related. You see, we changed our goal a few months ago when the most interesting phenomenon occurred right here in our very city. I'm talking, of course, about when our young friend here, Eren Yeager, turned into the Rogue Titan for the first time."

Eren blinked. "What the hell does that have to do with anything?"

"Everything!" the doctor cried. "It opened a door to a whole new realm of possibilities for us. Just think of what we could do if we had an army of Titans on our side."

Erwin's eyes narrowed. "What a foolish thought. Such a risk is far too great."

"But still worth trying," the doctor insisted. "At least we believed it was. So we attempted to duplicate whatever had been done to Eren. We did this by examining his blood."

Eren scowled. "And just where the hell did you get my blood from? Did you steal it from me while I was asleep, or something?"

Dr. Pacu scoffed. "Hardly. Even if we wanted to, your guards wouldn't have allowed it. No, we obtained it from another source. We simply gained access to the medical wards and got it there."

That should have been obvious. As soldiers, they had all been required to give blood samples for examination in order to make sure they were healthy, disease free, didn't have any major medical issues, etc. It was also good to have blood handy in case anyone needed a blood transfusion if they were injured in battle.

"At first we simply started out trying to create Titans of our own," Dr. Pacu continued. "We experimented on animals first. Most didn't survive, and the closest we came to achieving our goal with are those two over there." He nodded towards the mutant rat and cockroach. "We had a toad that was like them too, but it died after a few days."

Connie spat on the floor. "That's sick, and I don't just mean what you're doing to such poor defenseless animals. Here we are trying to kill Titans, and yet you're here trying to make more of them."

"To aid us," Dr. Pacu pointed out. "To help us defeat the Titans the same way young Eren does. If he alone has helped our cause, we would benefit even more if we had more like him." Sighing again, he adjusted his glasses. "Unfortunately, the results weren't good enough in our animal subjects to move on to human trials. There was just too high of a probability of death."

Levi crossed his arms. "It seems you still managed to pull it off though. You would have had to if you really created Titan X."

The doctor nodded. "Yes, that's true, but not through the methods we were using. So we decided to take a step back and see if we could create an ordinary Titan rather than a Titan Shifter. So we went back to cloning, only this time we attempted to clone a Titan."

"Ah, I think I see now," Erwin replied. "How did that work out for you?"

Dr. Pacu casually stroked his chin. "Human and animal trials were difficult enough, but cloning a Titan proved to be even harder. Getting Titan DNA alone was complicated in itself. Unlike other living organisms, a Titan's body, or even a piece of its body that has been separated from the whole, will evaporate into nothing. In order to get DNA, we needed a fresh source."

"So that's why you have that Titan imprisoned back there," Mikasa noted.

"And that's why you have members of the Military Police working for you," Levi added, "to capture Titans for your research."

"Yes," the doctor confessed. "But even with a fresh DNA source, we still ran into the same problems we had while attempting to clone humans. Most of the parts we managed to grow only lasted a few hours. These parts that you see in the tanks are the ones we've managed to prevent from dying, and the closest we've come to cloning an entire Titan is in the tank over there."

He pointed to the other side of the room. Built into the wall was a large fluid filled tank. Inside was most of the head of a Titan with a neck, one arm, and only part of its shoulder on the opposing arm. From the portion of its face that had grown, it appeared to be a clone of the Titan they had in captivity.

"So far, attempting to grow a specimen any further has resulted in the death of the subject," the doctor explained. "We needed a new strategy to pull this off. Eventually we realized that we had to replicate what Mother Nature had already perfected in order to create new life. I'm talking, of course, about breeding."

Levi raised an eyebrow. "And how were you planning on pulling that off? Titans are all male, and they lack reproductive organs."

Dr. Pacu nodded impatiently. "Yes, that's true, but several weeks ago, that problem was solved."

Armin's eyes widened. "Annie's Titan form. It's a girl. You used the Female Titan."

The doctor looked impressed. "Very good, young man; very good indeed. Yes, we did use the Female Titan, the only female of its kind. The same way we gained access to Eren's blood, once the Female Titan's identity was revealed, we took a sample of hers from the medical lab as well."

"But that was human blood," Krista pointed out. "How could that help you?"

Adjusting his glasses, he explained, "It may have been human blood, but her DNA still contained the genetic code for her Titan form in it. We simply separated the genetic material for her Titan form from her human DNA and extracted it. Once we had what we needed, it was back to the cloning process."

Jean was making a disgusted look. "This is seriously messed up. And it still shouldn't have made a difference. Even if you did have the Female Titan's DNA, I don't see how it would have helped you. She may have been the only girl Titan, but she also lacked sexual organs."

Dr. Pacu shook his finger at him. "You are correct, my good sir. And this indeed proved to be a problem for us. But, you see, while digging up our ancestors' process of cloning, we discovered something else that was related to the field. Our ancestors called it genetic alteration. It deals with manipulating, controlling, and changing the genetic structure of DNA."

"What the hell does that mean?" Eren demanded, feeling like he wasn't going to like what he was about to hear.

The doctor looked impatient again, but also appeared thoughtful. "How to explain this…? Hmm… Ok, here's an example of what our ancestors did with this. Back before society fell, our ancestors would sometimes experiment on animals to find cures for diseases. We uncovered a case where a chimpanzee had jellyfish cells put inside it. From what our research had gathered, this supposedly allowed the jellyfish cells inside the chimpanzee's body to light up and become easier to see so they could monitor them better to experiment on it."

It seemed he had lost them with this explanation.

"What does a chimp and a jellyfish have to do with creating Titans?" Sasha asked.

The doctor groaned. "Noting, it was just an example of genetic alteration so you could have a better understanding about what it is. There were other cases we uncovered. Our ancestors also created a cat whose fur glowed in the dark. Another case revealed salmon that grew twice as fast as normal salmon. And I'm sure there are many others that our ancestors altered too."

He casually adjusted his glasses. "Now pay attention if you want to hear this. While it's true that the Female Titan had no reproductive organs, her human form certainly did. Therefore, using genetic alteration, we took the genetic code from her human form that made up the reproductive organs and introduced it to her Titan form. Now had we been able to successfully clone a full body, this would have allowed us to grow a clone of the Female Titan  _with_  reproductive organs."

He sighed once more, seeming to be doing that a lot, and pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming on. "Alas, that was still beyond our skills, otherwise we never would have had to go through all this hassle to begin with. As I stated before, the only thing we've managed to clone from a Titan, or anything for that matter, have been a few body parts. But a few body parts were all we required, and we were able to get what we needed. We managed to grow the ovaries and womb of the Female Titan, and prevent them from dying. We now had the fully functioning reproductive organs of a female Titan."

He looked at the others expectantly, but was only met with looks of revulsion. He supposed he should have expected as much. Their research indicated that many of the things their ancestors did in the name of science and medicine disgusted many people. Yet it had been for the greater good, and he had always been a firm believer that the ends justified the means. It was the same principle here. Sometimes they had to do horrible things for the benefit of the people.

Even Levi looked disgusted, judging by the frown on his face. "You sicken me. All this just to create more Titans to fight on our side."

The doctor slammed his hand against the wall. "This is war, Captain Levi, and we're losing! If we need to resort to some unorthodox and questionable methods to achieve victory, then so be it!"

Erwin didn't care about morality right now. What's been done was done, now they just needed answers for what had been done so they could undo it. "So you had developed a working Titan womb, but you said you intended to breed, which means you would still need a male. I guess there's no shortage of those though. Would I be correct in assuming that you did the same thing you did for the female?"

For some reason, Dr. Pacu looked rather relieved as he nodded. "Yes, using the same process to create the female's reproductive organs, we did the same thing for he male. And after we successfully cloned testiculars for the male Titan, it was a simple matter of taking a semen sample from them and artificially inseminating the female reproductive organs. The result developed very quickly. Upon conception, the fertilized egg grew into infancy, and was ready to be 'born' in just two days time. After it's, for lack of a better word, birth, it grew to adulthood in a matter of minutes. The final result was Titan X."

He fell silent here, his explanation complete. There it was, at last, the mystery of Titan X's origins. There were still many questions that needed to be answered, but at least they knew where their target had come from, and why the doctor was so sure there was only one of its kind.

It was still hard to believe that they had actually managed to create Titan X. No wonder he had been so secretive. There would undoubtedly be repercussions for this. It was safe to assume that not even the higher ups were aware of Dr. Pacu's little science project.

Being the brilliant person he was, Armin suddenly realized something as bits of the information they had been told began adding up. A look of horror crossed his face, and he wished desperately that he could put it out of his mind forever. But they needed answers; they  _deserved_  answers, even if those answers were not what they wanted to hear. It was tempting to just pretend the thought had never occurred to him, but he had to know if his suspicions were right or not.

"Hold on," he muttered, unable to keep the horrifying expectation for what he suspected out of his voice, "you said that to create the male Titan reproductive organs that you had to do the same thing you did to create female Titan reproductive organs." He noted the uneasy look appear on the doctor's face, fueling his suspicions further. "But you told us that in order to do that, you took the genetic code that made up Annie's reproductive organs and introduced them to the Female Titan's DNA in order to grow them."

Dr. Pacu shifted uncomfortably. "Yes, that's true. What of it?"

Everyone's attention was now on Armin, but he didn't even notice them. "But… you wouldn't have had that for a male Titan. There may be plenty of them, but none of them have reproductive organs, and they don't have any human DNA in them, so you wouldn't have been able to obtain that genetic code from them in order to introduce it to their Titan DNA. You wouldn't have been able to grow any male reproductive organs in that case since there was no source, but you did. So how'd you do it?"

He prayed he was wrong, but the look on the doctor's face said that he wasn't.

Dr. Pacu closed his eyes. "Yes, it's true. We couldn't create male reproductive organs without a genetic source to take the genes from. As with the female Titan reproductive organs, we needed a human source to get it from in order to introduce it to the male Titan DNA. We couldn't use ordinary human male DNA though; we tried it, and the genetic code was rejected, it just wasn't compatible. We needed to get it from a male Titan Shifter so we could get the genetic code from their human DNA." He opened his eyes, looking at Eren. "And we found one."

Eren suddenly looked horrified as the pieces began clicking into place. He suddenly felt like he was going to be sick as he struggled to find his voice. "You… you mean…?"

"Yes," the doctor replied. "We got it from you. This makes Titan X the biological offspring of the Female Titan and the Rogue Titan."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N: The shit's hit the fan now. I assume that some of you managed to guess that Dr. Pacu and his team had somehow created Titan X, but I'll bet none of you ever guessed how. I got this idea back when I was first watching the series. I had already begun brainstorming ideas for this story back then. During the 'Female Titan Arc', I originally thought that that the reason the Female Titan wanted Eren was for some kind of mate, which got me thinking of what they're offspring would be like. Speaking of which, does it make sense that I'm a shipper for Rogue Titan/Female Titan, but not Eren/Annie? Anyway, at this point, I had already thought up Titan X, which at the time I had simply called the Reproducing Titan. So I simply applied my theory for what the Female and Rogue Titan's offspring would be like to Titan X and, presto, I had an origin for my character. Obviously I had to expand on that idea a bit, hence the purpose for the cloning and genetic alternating since neither the Female Titan or the Rogue Titan had reproductive organs. If anyone is confused by all this, feel free to ask your questions, and I'll do my best to explain in a responding message or in the next Author's Note. But now that the truth is out, we'll see how Eren and Mikasa react to this news. They are going to be so pissed off. They may actually kill the doctor where he stands. Hmm, I wonder who will be angrier. Well, leave me a few reviews until then, and I'll see you in a week.)


	7. Final Results

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N: Ok, good, it seems that last chapter didn't confuse anyone. I was afraid I didn't accurately explain the situation, but it seems that everyone got it. I'm glad. Now it's time for the part you've all been waiting for. How are Eren and Mikasa going to react to the news? It's about to get real.)
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

**Chapter 7: Final Results**

Eren hadn't even realized he had moved. The next thing he knew, he was pinning Dr. Pacu against the wall, his face inches away from the old man's.

"You're lying!" he seethed. "Tell me you're lying! Tell me it's not true!"

Several scientists abandoned their posts and began heading over to help their superior, but Dr. Pacu held up his hand to stop them, not taking his eyes off Eren. "I'm sorry, my boy, but I'm afraid it's true. It was the only way we could achieve our goal."

From behind him, Eren heard Jean say, "Congratulations, Eren, you're a daddy."

There was no humor in Jean's tone. He'd simply been stating a fact, but it still pissed Eren off even more. "Shut up, Jean!" he snapped. Not taking his eyes off the doctor. "Just shut the fuck up!"

Dr. Pacu placed his hand over Eren's that was grasping his shirt. "I know what we did was wrong, but you have to understand that it was for the greater good."

"The greater good?" Eren raged. "The greater good! You created a monstrosity! Worse than that, you've permanently tainted my entire family's bloodline! And you've also permanently tied me to that traitor, Annie! I'm now bonded to her through your precious Titan X!"

The doctor winced, but accepted the boy's wrath. Knowing that he deserved it for wronging him in such a way. "If it's any consolation, Titan X is not actually yours and Annie's child, but the Rogue Titan and the Female Titan's."

"I  _am_  the Rogue Titan, you presumptuous bastard!"

"Actually, it's more like you  _become_  the Rogue Titan. The genetic structure changes between your human form and your Titan form. We know this from studying your DNA. You're practically two different beings. It's not you, but the Rogue Titan that's Titan X's father."

Eren slammed him against the wall. "Don't try to justify this or make it sound any worse than what it really is! I don't care what changes take place in my genetic structure when I become the Rogue Titan; the same blood still flows through my veins! That same blood now flows through Titan X's! I'll never be able to break that connection, not even when that thing is dead and rotting in the furthest pits of Hell! I'm now permanently bound by blood to that monster, and all of its offspring as well!"

The doctor raised an eyebrow. "Strange how you're so concerned about being tied to the Titans only now. You didn't seem this upset when you found out that you could actually become a Titan."

Eren punched the wall beside Dr. Pacu's head, splitting his knuckles and making the doctor flinch. "But I'm not one of them! I'm not a murdering man-eating monster! I can use that form against them and help people! Even so, having that form still disgusts me, but I can at least hold onto hope for a cure once we reach my basement in Shiganshina District and deal with the Titan problem once and for all! But this, this can't be undone! I'm now  _related_  to one of them! You've totally screwed me over for the sake of your experiment, you immoral son of a bitch!"

"Cadet Eren," Erwin said loudly, "that is enough! I want you to wait outside for the remainder of this meeting."

Eren glanced at him. "But, sir-"

"That is an order, cadet! We shall fill you in on whatever else we learn."

At first it seemed as if Eren was going to argue, but then he let the doctor go. He gave him one last look of loathing before turning away. "I'll never forgive you or this. Don't ever show your face to me again. And stop playing around with my blood before I spill yours."

He began waking away. Guilt gripped the doctor for what he had done, and he felt the need to further justify himself to the boy.

"Please, be reasonable," he said, starting after him. "We never intended to hurt you; we just wanted-"

As quick as lightning, Mikasa suddenly moved in front of the doctor. Her blade came down, passing directly in between his eyes, stopping him in his tracks. A few seconds ticked by where nobody moved, then Dr. Pacu's glasses split in half and fell off his face, followed immediately by the front of his shirt splitting open.

The doctor blinked, then jumped back. He looked down at his ruined shirt and broken glasses, the glared at Mikasa angrily. "What the hell do you think you're doing? What if you missed and actually killed me?"

His anger quickly gave way to fear as he stared at the cold fury in Mikasa's eyes. Nearly unrestrained rage burned in their depths, and the false emotionless look on her face hid only a hint of the anger she felt.

"What do you mean?" she asked coldly. "I  _did_  miss."

Her words made the color drain from the doctor's face and a shiver of cold dread ran through him. It was with great relief that he watched her put her blade away and turn to follow Eren outside. Neither Erwin or Levi made a move to stop her, and the rest of the Scouts quickly moved out of the way to let her pass. Armin looked as if he wanted to follow them, but instead chose to remain behind.

Once the door closed behind her, Erwin addressed the doctor once again. "I don't blame either of them for their anger. You make me sick. I just want that on record."

When Dr. Pacu no longer looked as if he was about to defecate himself, he became defensive once more. "We were trying to find a way to create more Titans that would fight on our side."

"Yes," Levi muttered sarcastically, "you did a fabulous job on that. Titan X is a real benefit for humanity."

The doctor winced. "It's true that Titan X was a failure, but it was just our first attempt. I'm sure we're on the right track. We can't create Titans that fight on our side if we can't even create Titans in general. We'll do better next time."

"You're going to try again?" Krista gasped in horror.

Dr. Pacu raised an eyebrow. "Of course. We won't let one failed attempt stop us. I'm sure not all your missions were successful."

"Hey," Sasha cried, "failure may be expected from time to time, but there are just some things you shouldn't do."

"In any case," Erwin added, "when you realized that Titan X was a failure, why didn't you kill it right away?"

Dr. Pacu gave him a look as if this should have been obvious. "For research, of course. We needed to study it to figure out where we went wrong in order to properly create Titans we can use. So we had it subdued and kept it in captivity in order to study it."

Hange was practically weeping. "How could you keep me out of the loop? Just imagine all I could have learned from such a subject. But instead you kept it to yourself. How dare you!"

"So," Levi interrupted, ignoring her, "what did you learn from your research?"

The look of obsessed excitement reappeared on the doctor's face again. Under different circumstances, he and Hange probably would have gotten along very well. "A great many things. By studying Titan X's DNA, we were able to see what it was capable of. Its unique abilities seem to have been passed down to it from its parents. By that I mean its ability to harden its skin, its ability to Titan Shift even though it's already a Titan, also its higher intelligence than other Titans. I can't say where it's ability to control other Titans came from though. Perhaps it developed that on its own."

Both having remained silent until now, Reiner and Bertolt exchanged a look, each sharing the same thought. If Titan X had inherited its abilities from its parents, then it only helped to prove their suspicion of what Eren was capable of. As the Female Titan, Annie may have been able to call for other Titans, but she couldn't control them, not like Titan X. It must have inherited that ability from its other parent.

"And what about its reproduction ability?" Erwin asked. "Where did that come from?"

Dr. Pacu crossed his arms, looking thoughtful. "That we're not entirely sure of. But our tests indicate that the most likely scenario is that it obtained that ability due to the alterations we made to its parents DNA in order to grow reproductive organs. It must have caused some kind of anomaly. Until Titan X escaped, we've simply been killing any offspring it gave birth to the moment they were born."

Erwin raise an eyebrow. "Really? You didn't want to study any of its offspring?"

"Oh no, we did, but as I told you before, we soon realized that they were just ordinary Titans, rather useless to us at this point, so we simply put them down."

"Right," Levi muttered uncaringly, "now how about you tell us how your little science experiment got away from you."

The glare the doctor gave him suggested that he didn't appreciate the captain's sass. "Truth be told, we got careless. We had it in captivity for a few weeks without incident, so we thought it was secure. But one day it got free and escaped. It climbed right over the Wall, much as the Female Titan attempted before she was caught. It happened during the night, which was surprising because, like all Titans, Titan X showed a lack of activity without the sun. Fortunately for us, we're far away enough from any populated area, added to the fact that it was dark out, and Titan X got away without the public knowing about it. But now that it's loose, there isn't anyone to kill off the Titans it gives birth to, so the number of Titans has been growing."

"Which is why you turned to us for help," Erwin concluded. "Leaving it to the Scouts to clean up your mess."

The doctor grumbled, but did not deny this. "I can admit that we screwed up, and yes, we greatly wronged that boy, but our intentions were good."

"Speaking of Eren," said Levi, "you still haven't told us why you didn't want him and Titan X to meet, or why it wants him so much, or why it tried to stick him in its womb. Don't tell me your pet Titan has some sort of unbirth fetish."

Now the doctor looked angry. "You really should have heeded my warning about that. The reason why I didn't want them to meet was because it could smell the Rogue Titan inside Eren. It recognizes the scent of its father, and it wants him. Its mother too for that matter. It wants them both, desperately. And from what our studies of Titan X's DNA have revealed, it seems that if it keeps Eren or Annie in its womb for a long enough time, they'll become real Titans. They're humanity will vanish completely, and their human forms will be absorbed by their Titan forms. And once Titan X gives birth to them, they'll be true full-fledged Titans, no different from any others, and with no hope of becoming human ever again."

His fists clenched. "And now that Eren and Titan X have met, it has his scent. It will follow it and come for him no matter where he is, and it won't stop until it turns him into an actual Titan, and then it will seek out its mother too."

Jean cut his eyes at him. "So you're basically telling us that, special abilities aside, Titan X is just your smarter than the average Titan that wants its mommy and daddy."

"This isn't funny, Jean," Armin exclaimed, looking horrified. "If this is true, then Titan X really will come, right over the Wall, or through it. And if it gets hold of Eren, then he'll lose more than his life, he'll lose his very identity. He'll be worse than dead, he'll be just another Titan we need to put down. It's now more imperative than ever that we take out Titan X. Not just before it gets to Eren, but before it gets into the city and a lot more people die."

"Exactly," Dr. Pacu agreed. "Which is why you need to kill it as soon as possible."

Levi crosses his arms. "You know, this would have been a lot simpler if you had just told us all this from the beginning. Then we wouldn't be in this predicament."

"It was classified!" the doctor shouted. "How many times must I say it? Everything we do here is top secret. No one outside of this facility was to know of any of this. Not even the higher ups are fully aware of our research and experiments."

"Speaking of which," said Erwin, "what's the status on that? Have you made any further attempts at creating anymore Titans?"

"And don't you dare say it's classified," Levi added.

Scowling, the doctor shook his head. "No, not since Titan X. After that last failure, we decided to start from scratch."

"I see," Erwin muttered. "Thank you for your cooperation. Men!"

"Yes, sir?"

"Destroy everything in this place."

The doctor's eyes widened. "What?"

"Right away, sir!"

They wasted no time in beginning to lay waste to everything in the room. Tubes were shattered, tanks were smashed, desks and their contents were turned over as they proceeded to dismantle and destroy everything in sight.

"What the hell are you doing?" Dr. Pacu raged. "Stop it, you fools! You'll ruin everything!"

"That's the idea," Erwin replied. "You've committed a great wrong. Many people are dead because of you and your experiments. Now humanity itself is in more danger than ever before. We're going to make sure you never do anything like this ever again. This madness ends here!"

The Titan in the back was slain, followed by the mutant rat and cockroach. The bodies began to evaporate away, as did the cloned organs and other body parts that had been in the tanks and test tubes. Even the various types of technology were smashed, causing smoke to rise up and sparks to fly. Soon a fire ignited and lit up the room, and it began spreading quickly.

"Stop it!" Dr. Pacu shouted. "Stop! This is my life's work! There's much not related to our Titan creation projects here too! You'll destroy all the ancient technology we've reconstructed!"

Erwin stared at the doctor uncaringly. "And what of it? What has any of this stuff done to benefit society? You've kept it all under lock and key like some kind of collection. Aside from the ODM Gear that you claim you 'assisted' in creating, what has any of this stuff done for us besides waste money and resources? If none of this stuff helped our ancestors stop the Titans, it's sure as hell not going to help us. We can worry about rebuilding our ancestors' way of life when the Titans are dealt with."

He turned to leave, and Dr. Pacu made one last attempt to stop him. But like with Mikasa when he went after Eren, he was stopped, this time by Levi. Whirling about, the captain delivered a roundhouse kick, his heel connecting with the doctor's jaw and knocking him off his feet. He slammed against the wall and slid down to the floor. Placing his hand against his cheek, he spat a mouthful of blood on the floor. Reaching into his mouth he pulled out a tooth that had been dislodged.

Levi glared at the fallen doctor unsympathetically before addressing the remaining Scouts. "We're done here. Move out!"

The soldiers ran out of the room as the fire quickly spread to the rest of the facility. It wouldn't be long before the entire building was up in flames. The scientists had already fled, the last few fighting to get out the doors while those that were already outside watched as the facility burned.

Only two people remained in the facility. One was Dr. Pacu, who remained sitting against the wall with a defeated look on his face. The other was a woman scientist who had noticed that he had made no move to leave the burning building.

"Dr. Pacu!" she cried. "Sir, we have to get out of here! This whole place is going to come down!"

The doctor gave her a sorrowful look, a sad smile plastered on his face. "For what purpose? This work was my whole life. Everything I've ever amounted to is here. Now that it's gone, my life has no meaning."

"Doctor, please!"

"Get out of here, my dear, while you still can."

The female scientist gave him one last pleading look before fleeing from the room. A few seconds later, the roof collapsed around him.

(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)(-)-(-)

Outside, the Scout Regiment and the scientists watched as the fire raged on. Many of the scientists were angry with the Scouts, but they were paid no mind. When the female scientist made it out, coughing and sputtering, a few other scientists went to help her. When asked about Dr. Pacu, she simply shook her head.

A distance away, Eren stood looking at Wall Rose, now knowing the truth about the monstrous abomination that roamed beyond it. It seemed the saying was true after all; ignorance really was bliss, or at least it was in this case. Dr. Pacu was right; he would have been better off not knowing the truth.

A few feet away, Mikasa stood watching him, trying to come up with something to say. Both sorrow and anger stirred within her. Sorrow for Eren, and anger for what had been done to him. Why did this have to happen to him? Had he not gone through enough? How dare that cursed doctor take such liberties! It must have been tearing Eren up to think that Titan X was the offspring of his and Annie's Titan form. The thought of it made Mikasa's blood boil. She didn't give a rat's ass about Annie, but no one was allowed to have Eren's children except for her.

The thought made her blink in confusion. Where had  _that_  thought come from? Her mother had told her that she would understand about having children when she got older, but family members didn't think about having children with another family member, so why did she feel like something that was meant to be her right and her right alone had been taken from her? Eren was her foster brother; she only thought of him as family, didn't she?

Farther away, their friends came over to join them, discussing the shocking truths that had just been revealed to them.

"Still hard to believe," Jean was saying. "It sounds completely ridiculous."

"You're telling me," Connie agreed. "It's frickin' crazy. How the hell is any of that possible?"

"Supposedly, our ancestors' technology was really incredible," Krista told him. She suddenly looked startled by what she said. "Not what the doctor did, or any of that cloning of genetic alteration stuff! I just meant our ancestors must have been capable of many things. I even heard that they had once been capable of flying through the sky in large metal birds."

"Flying in large metal birds?" Ymir repeated, placing a hand on Krista's head. "Oh, my cute little Krista, you really shouldn't believe everything you hear."

"Yeah, that's just impossible," Jean agreed.

"Actually, I read about that as well," Armin added. "But none of that matters right now. We've got a real problem on our hands." He glanced at Eren and Mikasa. "I can't imagine what they must be going through."

Sasha nodded. "I know, right. Eren really looked like he was about to lose it in there. And Mikasa was seriously pissed off as well."

"Oh, totally," Connie agreed. "I really thought she was going to kill the doc. I've never seen her that angry before."

"Yeah, there was some major jealousy right there. Even if it's from his Titan form, she doesn't like the idea of anyone else besides her having his kids."

Jean nearly tripped over his feet. "What the hell do you mean by that?" he raged at Sasha.

Connie cut his eyes. "And speaking of jealousy."

"Really, Jean," Ymir muttered in a bored voice, "you should just give up already. It's obvious to everyone that she only has eyes for Eren alone."

"T-That's just because they're siblings!"

"Foster siblings," Armin reminded him. "There's no blood relation, not even any written document relation. Eren's parents just raised her after… after her parents died."

"At ease!" Erwin snapped as he walked by.

They quickly stood up straight and placed their fists over their hearts. "Sir!"

He walked over to Eren and Mikasa, standing beside the latter. "Cadet Eren, are you ok?"

Eren's fists clenched. "I should have realized it. The signs were there. It resembled my Titan form; it even had the same jaw structure, just with sharp teeth. And it had Annie's blonde hair, and her hardening ability, not to mention the patches of missing skin."

"No one could have foreseen this, cadet, even if we had been aware of what our ancestors' technology was capable of. It's of no fault of your own."

Choking back a disgusted sob, Eren dropped to his knees and punched the ground. Mikasa made a move to go to him, but Erwin held out a hand, stopping her.

"I wish I didn't know," he seethed. "If only I had been able to kill it before, then I never would have had to find out the truth."

"We would have gotten answers eventually," Erwin told him. "We all knew the doctor was hiding something, and we would have looked into it. Learning it now allowed us to prevent him from possibly creating another even more dangerous Titan."

"Maybe so, but I didn't need to hear the details of how he pulled it off."

Erwin stared at him for a moment. "Even if you had remained ignorant, it would not have changed the truth."

Eren flinched at this. "DAMN IT!"

Erwin gave him a few moments to vent before asking a very important quest. "I feel for you, cadet. I really do, but I must ask you… will this weaken your resolve to destroy the target?"

Eren turned to him, angry tears in his eyes, his face a mask of fury. "Of course not! If anything, it makes me more determine than ever to wipe the floor with this thing! I may not be able to sever the bond that I share with it, but I'll be sure to remove every trace of that abomination from the face of the earth! That thing is  _not_  my kid!" A fire blazed in his eyes as righteous fury burned through him. "And I'll make it wish it had never been born!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N: Pretty dramatic, huh? Soap operas got nothing on this. So how did you like Eren and Mikasa's reactions? Eren was about to go ape-shit on the doctor's ass, and Mikasa was seriously going to kill him if she didn't leave. Seems the result was the same either way. At least there won't be anymore freak experiments going on. Now they just have to kill off Titan X. This is their last chance too, otherwise Titan X is gonna breach the city. Unless it gets Eren. But then it's still gonna be searching for Annie. They better just make sure they beat it. But how are they gonna defeat a Titan that's also a Titan Shifter? There's gonna be a big battle next chapter, so get ready for it.)


	8. A Family Matter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N: Last chapter folks. Sorry if you were hoping it would be longer, but I said from the beginning that it would be a short fic. With the truth finally revealed, it's now time for the final confrontation with Titan X. It's gonna be an epic fight.)
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

**Chapter 8: A Family Matter**

They had set out for the third and last time. It would indeed be their last chance before Titan X reached Wall Rose. According to the radar, it was heading straight for the city. If they didn't kill it this time, they wouldn't have time to retreat and regroup again. And if Titan X did reach the Wall, it might transform and destroy it, then they would really be screwed.

But Eren was determined not to let that happen. Not just because of all the lives that would be lost if the city was breached, but because he wanted that wretched creature dead, and he wanted it dead as soon as possible. It never should have been born at all, but he intended to make sure there wasn't a trace of it left.

Both he and Mikasa had been filled in on what had been learned about Titan X after the two of them had stormed out of the facility. Mikasa had looked absolutely horrified when they had been told why Titan X had been attempting to stick Eren inside its womb. She could care less if it did it to Annie, the two of them had never been on the best of terms even before her betrayal, but she couldn't bare the thought of Titan X getting hold of Eren. It would be a fate worse than death; he wouldn't even be Eren anymore, he would truly become the thing he hated the most.

Eren himself felt like he was going to be sick. The thought of actually becoming a true Titan filled him with revulsion. Though very useful, it was sickening enough when he transformed and wore the Rogue Titan's body, but he would not, under any circumstances, allow himself to become just another one of those monsters, especially not for some freak science project that wanted its daddy, as Jean had so nicely put it.

They were close now, according to the radar. The area seemed to be an abandoned country land. There were a few farmhouses here and there where families had once lived, the homes now empty and covered in as much vegetation as the equally empty barns. Several steel windmills slowly turned as the wind blew, their purpose no longer useful with the people that built them no longer around, and what had once been acres of land where crops were once grown was now nothing more than endless fields of tall grass.

Crawling along this grassy field was Titan X, scurrying about on its hands and knees, sniffing the ground here and there like a dog. It was apparent that it was tracking Eren's scent, and it was on the right track; they had indeed come this way when making their previous escape attempt.

A few dozen other Titans were wandering around as well. The Scouts could deal with them, but it would be more difficult with the mostly open fields. The empty homes, barns, and windmills didn't come up high enough to reach the larger Titans' weak spots, but they had worked with a lot less.

Still sniffing at the ground, Titan X suddenly stopped. Eren froze and moved behind the tower silo he was hiding behind, afraid it may have picked up his scent. That didn't seem to be the case though as it rose to its feet and began roaring at the sky. Eren resisted the urge to cover his ears as his eyes drifted lower to the Titan's swollen abdomen. Its stomach was larger than the last time he saw it, and it was moving. That, coupled with the Titan's agonized roars, made it fairly obvious for him to figure out what was happening.

Still wanting confirmation, he looked to Armin beside him. "Is it…?"

Knowing what he meant, Armin nodded, and they watched as Titan X's stomach burst open and a newborn Titan came spilling out.

A few feet away, Sasha ended up puking, and Eren couldn't blame her, he too felt rather sickened by the sight. He may not have actually witnessed any humans, or even animals, give birth, but he was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to be like  _that_. He also hoped that Titan X was in as much pain as it looked to be in.

As the hole in Titan X's stomach healed, the newborn Titan proceeded to grow to its full height, ending up in the seven-meter range. Eren's hands itched to grab his blades and carve out the back of its neck, but he left his weapons at his sides. This new Titan was not his target, its freak of a parent was, and he wanted it dead just as much as, maybe even more than, the Colossal, Armored, and Smiling Titans.

His eyes landed on the monster's now flat, well-toned gut. Already another Titan would have begun growing in there, but he knew that Titan X wanted nothing more than to shove him in there and somehow turn him into a Titan. Eren wasn't sure if he was more angered or disgusted by the thought of it. But it wouldn't matter. He would  _not_  become one of them, not anymore than he already was; he'd take his own life first. But with his regeneration, would he even be able to while trapped in the Titan's womb? He hoped he wouldn't have to find out.

His teeth clenched together tightly and his nails dug into his palms as he glared at the Titan in hatred. If he had hated this monstrosity when Dr. Pacu had first revealed the truth about it, he utterly despised it when he found out what it wanted from him and Annie. Though aside from having one more Titan to deal with, he wouldn't have cared if Titan X did manage to get a hold of Annie. In fact, it would almost be fitting for her to truly join the Titan ranks since she was a traitor to humanity, but he would be damned if he became just another monster to be put down.

Mikasa took notice of Eren's fury and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, calm down. You need to be focused."

"I'll calm down when that thing is dead!" he unintentionally snapped at her.

"Eren," said Armin, "she's just concerned. We all are."

Eren's misdirected anger now shifted to him. "Well, you guys don't need to worry about me! Just worry about doing your jobs! Now stand back!"

He gave them time to retreat away from him before taking a painful bite out of his hand. If Titan X and the rest of its kind didn't know he was here before, they certainly knew now, and all their attention turned to the flash of light.

Eren stepped out from behind the silo; it wasn't as if it was big enough to hide him anymore anyway. Titan X roared at him, as did the other Titans, their poses hostile, but Titan X simply glanced in their direction, and they seemed to relax, going back to their random wandering.

That was when the Scouts came out from their hiding places, ready to go on the attack. The other Titans turned their attention to them, but Titan X's gaze was fixated on Eren.

" _Well, come on then!"_  Eren roared from inside the Rogue Titan's body.  _"Isn't this what you wanted? You wanted to see your daddy, didn't you? Well, here he is!_ This _is your father! Not me, not my real body! And I won't become what you want me to be! I'll never become a real Titan! Not now, not ever! I'll die first!"_

Almost as if it had heard him, Titan X roared and charged forward, dropping to all fours and rushing towards him like a wild animal. Eren ran to meet it, but misjudged the monster's athletic abilities as it pounced from still a good distance away, latching onto him like it had the first time they met.

Wrapping its arms and legs around Eren's body, Titan X bit into his shoulder and began eating its way through his flesh. Eren roared, but his arms were pinned to his sides from Titan X's embrace. He struggled and thrashed about, but was unable to break the beast's solid hold.

Eren finally jumped forward, forcing all his weight down on Titan X as they crashed to the ground, crushing the monster beneath him. He attempted to pull away, but at this point, Titan X had eaten through enough of his shoulder that his entire arm was ripped from his body. Nevertheless, it allowed him to angle out of Titan X's hold enough to pull his other arm free from the monster's grip and punch it square in the nose, feeling it break beneath his knuckles.

Jumping away, Eren's bloody stump steamed as his Titan body began to regenerate the missing limb. But he didn't wait until he recovered before going on the attack. As Titan X began to get up, he delivered a well-placed kick to its jaw, knocking it back down. His kicks then shifted to the Titan's torso, repeatedly slamming his foot into its side.

He should have known better than to attack the same spot for too long. The area he had been kicking suddenly hardened, and Eren's ankle smashed against it, the bone breaking and his foot turning in an add angle. He grumbled and made the mistake of putting pressure on it, causing the bone to break further, and he toppled over, the broken bone sticking out of his ankle.

Titan X began to get up again, and Eren fell upon it. With his remaining arm, he grabbed the Titan around the throat and slammed its head back down. Focusing all his strength into his partly regenerated arm, he sped up the healing process, and a new arm fully formed, bursting from the stump. He then slammed his new fist into Titan X's mouth, knocking out several teeth.

He was more prepared for it this time as he continued to knock out more of the Titan's teeth and break more of its jaw, so that when the skin hardened around Titan X's mouth, he was able to pull his punch in time. He waited a few seconds for the hardening effect to wear off before resuming his assault.

When the last of Titan X's teeth were knocked clean out of its mouth, Eren made a fist and punched downward, directly into the monster's gaping mouth. He pushed down further, his fist going down into its throat, forcing his arm deeper into its mouth.

" _Eat it!"_  he bellowed.  _"That's all you Titans want, isn't it, to eat us? Well go ahead and eat it! Consider it a last meal! Here, have some more!"_

He shoved his arm in further, his elbow nearly touching the Titan's lips, if it had had any. Titan X's eyes began bugging out and its face turned beet red. It was just a shame that he couldn't simply choke it to death, but Titan's apparently didn't even need air in order to survive. Titan X continued to struggle and gum his arm as its fist repeatedly slammed into Eren's side, the blows made all the more painful by the four spikes on its knuckle. Eren grunted with each blow, but ignored the pain, even as he felt his ribs break, for he knew his regeneration would heal him.

Unfortunately, Titan X's own regeneration had done its own work, and its teeth grew back, the sharp incisors burying into Eren's arm as they pushed through its gums. Titan X helped them along by biting down, its sharp teeth slicing through flesh and reaching bone.

Snarling, Eren pulled his arm back, deliberately scratching his fingernails along the inside of Titan X's esophagus and throat as the beast's teeth did their own damage to him by shredding the skin on his arm as he pulled it out of the Titan's mouth. With less weight pressing down on it, Titan X was able to lift itself up and throw a higher punch, this one hitting Eren in the face with one of its spikes stabbing into Eren's eye.

Eren stumbled back, his punctured eye and shredded arm steaming. Titan X rose to its feet, its broken jaw and nose finishing its regeneration process. It roared at Eren, and he roared back, feeling his own healing finishing up, then the two charged at each other again.

They came together, palms interlocked as they attempted to push the other back. But Eren had the benefit of knowing how to fight while Titan X was little more than a wild animal lashing out. And as it snapped at his face, he used a move he had learned during training and flipped the monster over onto its back.

Dropping to his knees, Eren grabbed the Titan by its hair.  _"Now give me your neck!"_  he growled at it, turning its head to expose its weak spot.

Titan X's hand shout out, its fingers also hardening, and wrecked its digits down Eren's body, tearing up strips of flesh. Eren snarled and pulled back on reflex, enable Titan X to flip onto its stomach and scurry away on all fours.

" _Get back here!"_  he shouted at its retreating form.

He raced after it, pouncing when he caught up, and landed on its back. Titan X struggled beneath him while Eren attempted to hold it down so he could once again try to bite out a chunk of its neck.

He bit down and his teeth shattered as Titan X's skin hardened. He pulled back, snarling, and Titan X's elbow slammed into his stomach, knocking Eren off its back as it climbed to its feet. Eren stood up as well and quickly sidestepped as Titan X charged at him, sticking out his foot as he did so in a childish, yet affective, attempt to trip the Titan, causing it to stumble, but still remain standing.

As Titan X found its footing, Eren's gaze landed on the silo he had been hiding behind earlier. He went over to it and tore the tower structure out of the ground, sending a shower of grain raining out the bottom. As Titan X charged at him, he swung the silo, shattering it against the monster's body, knocking it of its feet. He snarled down at it and tossed the remains of the silo aside, then looked around for something else he could use.

He spotted the steel windmills, and made his way over to the nearest one. The fact that it was made of metal would come in handy, and he ripped down the entire rotator. Turning towards Titan X, who was climbing to its feet, he spun around and threw it. The rotator flew through the air like a deadly frisbee, but Titan X jumped up, and the spinning object flew underneath it.

It landed on all fours, snarling at Eren, whose shattered teeth had repaired themselves by now. Crawling like a spider, Titan X scurried towards him and pounced. Eren attempted to catch it, but underestimated the Titan's strength and was knocked off his feet.

They landed with Titan X on top of him, and Eren found himself pinned down as the monster crawled up his body and roared in his face. Eren's hands came up and grabbed Titan X's head. He squeezed tightly while digging his thumbs into its eyes. Titan X roared loudly as Eren gouged out its eyes, feeling them pop as if they were grapes. Further pressure on its head caused its skull to crack, and a stream of blood and steam squirted out of the top of its head.

Howling, Titan X pulled away, allowing Eren to throw it off him. He got to his feet and watched as Titan X staggered around blindly, lashing out with one hand while the other one covered its weak spot. Steam rose from the top of its head and bloody eye sockets as it healed, and Eren knew he didn't have much time before it completely recovered.

He took a moment to glance at the Scouts as they fought the other few Titans nearby. He spotted a three meter one a short distance away and went after it, grabbing it by the leg and lifting it up. Turning back to the still blinded Titan, he swung the smaller one held like a ragdoll, smacking it into Titan X's head, causing it to stumble back.

" _How do you like that?"_  he snarled, using the Titan he held as a weapon.  _"Did you give birth to this one, you freak? Well, how do you like having it used against you like this?"_

He continued to beat the larger Titan with the smaller one until Titan X's face hardened, and the three meter one splattered against it, ripping the leg Eren held out of its socket. Eren paid it no mind as he dropped the torn limb and relied on his fists to punch Titan X anywhere he could.

As he threw another punch, Titan X caught his arm. It growled at him, its eyes fully healed, and Eren kneed it between the legs, which would have been much more affective if the Titan actually had any equipment hanging there.

The blow still caused Titan X to release his arm and stumble back. Eren reached for it, wrapping his hands around its throat. He may not be able to strangle it to death, but he could still break its neck to buy some time for a killing blow.

So focused was he on the Titan's face that he didn't notice its leg harden and kick out, making contact with his kneecap, completely shattering it. He roared as his leg buckled under his weight, bending back in the wrong direction. But he refused to release his grip on Titan X's neck, and that was when the beast's entire hand hardened and punched forward, making contact with Eren's chest. Steaming bloody went flying as Titan X punched a hole straight through Eren's body where his heart was, its fist bursting out his back.

Even while killing Titans. Mikasa had kept an eye on Eren's battle in case he needed help. When she saw this barbaric act of violence, and watched as Eren's hands fell away from Titan X's neck as he slumped forward with only the Titan's arm sticking through his body to hold him up, she froze.

"Eren!" she shouted, and made her way over to him.

Titan X pulled its arm out of Eren's chest, the gore on it already beginning to evaporate. It held him to prevent him from falling and turned him around, exposing the back of its neck. Its jaws opened wide, and it moved forward and bit the area open to expose Eren's real body. With him seemingly unconscious, he made no move to defend himself.

"Leave him alone!" Mikasa shouted, making a go for the Titan's weak spot.

She may very well have succeeded in killing it had she not called out, thus gaining the Titan's attention. It saw her out of the corner of its eye, and its arm came up to block, the skin hardening. Mikasa's blade shattered against it, but she paid it no mind as she kicked off its arm and landed on Eren's shoulder.

"You can't have him!" she yelled at the beast. "You can't! He's… he's mine!"

Her own words didn't even seem to register to her, and if Titan X understood any of what she said, it ignored her. Paying her no further mind, its gaze shifted back to the nape of the Rogue Titan's neck, which had healed shut, and it moved to bite it open again.

Mikasa moved to stand on the back of Eren's neck, pulling out new blades as she did so, and swinging them at the monster threateningly.

"Eren, you have to wake up!" she shouted to him. "I know you must be hurting right now, I can't even imagine how painful it must be to have a hole punched through your chest, but if you don't wake up right now, you're going to end up worse than dead!"

Titan X snapped its jaws at her, and she jumped back while swinging her blade, striking it across the nose.

"Eren, wake up! If you don't, then you really will end up as one of them!"

Titan X released Eren's body with one hand, raising it high to swat her. Its skin hardened, and Mikasa knew her blades wouldn't save her, yet she refused to move from defending Eren.

"Mikasa!" Armin shouted from a distance. "Get out of there!"

"EREN!" Mikasa shouted.

Titan X's hardened hand came down to smash her. At the same time, Eren's hand came up, catching it. Slowly, he looked over his shoulder, his eyes glowing brightly with unrestrained fury. Pulling away, he turned to face Titan X again while Mikasa grabbed hold of his hair to prevent from falling.

" _Kill!"_  Eren seethed.  _"Kill! Kill them all! I'LL KILL YOU ALL!"_

He was going berserk again. They had last seen this when he fought the Female Titan. Mikasa barely had time to shoot out cables and leap off him before he went on the attack again.

Titan X roared at him, but it was cut off as Eren's fist slammed into its jaw. Another blow soon followed as Eren attacked like a vicious animal. Titan X stumbled back as a barrage of punches rained down over it. Even when its skin hardened and Eren smashed his fists to ruin against it, he kept up the assault, not even aware of the pain in his maddened state.

Another powerful blow knocked the Titan off its feet, and Eren was immediately upon it. When his fist came down, Titan X bit down on it, but Eren tore free and used the bloody stump to deliver another blow.

"He's gone ape shit again," Jean observed. "Hope he calms down before he turns on us."

Mikasa glared at him. "He wouldn't do that. He'll control himself."

"That's not even the problem," said Armin, looking frightened. "Don't you remember what happened the last time Titan X was up against the ropes like this? It suddenly-"

What he was about to say suddenly came to pass. There was the flash of light of a Titan Shifter transforming, and Eren was sent flying as the Super Colossal Titan materialized. It emerged from the wall of steam emitting from its body, just as ferocious as before.

"Damn you to Hell," Erwin muttered as he stared at the massive beast.

Eren roared, snarling like a maddened hound, and charged at the giant. Titan X glanced down at him and kicked out, its foot making contact with him. Eren soared through the air, his bones a shattered mess, and crashed into the ground, bouncing a few times before skidding to a halt.

"That's gotta hurt," Sasha muttered.

"Hey, look out!" Jean shouted to her.

He flew over to her and cut down the Titan that had been coming up behind her while she was distracted. The color drained from her face as she realized how close she had come to being eaten alive.

"T-Thanks…" she stuttered.

Jean just humphed. "Don't thank me, just keep you eyes peeled, potato girl."

As Sasha wondered if she would ever be free of that nickname, Eren struggled to get to his feet, ignoring the pain in his body as his bones repaired themselves. Though unbearably painful, the kick seemed to have knocked him back to his senses. His memories since he had passed out were rather sketchy, but he recalled having gained the upper hand on Titian X.

Currently, said Titan was marching over towards him. Eren waited, giving his body more time to heal further. At least in this form, he didn't need to be worried about being stuck into the monster's womb; it would have to leave the Super Colossal Titan's body in order to do that, but how the hell was he supposed to beat it now?

Retreat was not an option this time. It would simply follow his scent back to the city; it had already come this far since their last meeting. If it broke through Wall Rose, then that was it, game over. Humanity wouldn't survive. Not just because the Titans would kill them, but also due to the lack of resources the cities inside Wall Sina had. They may be able to support themselves for now, but if Wall Rose fell, all its food and resources would be lost as the people retreated behind Wall Sina. Eventually, the food supply will run out with all the new mouths to feed, and they would starve.

Eren would not let that happen. He had to stop this thing, for Mikasa, for Armin, for his friends, for all of humanity.

Titan X brought its hand down to smash him against the ground. Eren jumped up, avoiding the giant hand, and threw a punch against the monster's torso. Its armored shell protected it, and the bones in Eren's arm snapped, tearing through his flesh and protruding from his arm.

He landed on his feet, stumbling, and immediately leapt away again as Titan X swiped at him. To speed his regeneration along, he grabbed the protruding bone, and howled in pain as he shoved it back into his arm and set it.

As Titan X reached for him again, Eren ducked beneath the large hand and went for its leg. The top of his head barely reached up to the much larger Titan's knee, but his goal was lower. Opening his mouth, he bit down on the tendon of Titan X's ankle, tearing it out.

Titan X grumbled and collapsed. Eren retreated out from under the large body as the Titan fell to its knees. Titan X swiped at him, its large hand closing over Eren's arm, and lifted him up. Eren struggled, but knew he would never be able to escape the Titan's grasp.

Bracing himself for what he would have to do, he bit into his own arm. Titan X's other hand came up to grab him as Eren continued to chew off his own arm. The Super Colossal Titan's large hand closed over air as Eren's limb tore away from his body and he fell to the ground.

Landing on his feet, he hurried away before he could be grabbed again, willing his arm to regenerate faster. He wished he had some ODM Gear he could use in his Titan form; it would make fighting the giant Titan X so much easier. At the very least, he wished he had a blade to cut the real Titan X's body out of the much larger one.

The sun reflected off something shiny, and Eren squinted as it shined in his eyes. It was the rotator of the metal windmill he had thrown at Titan X earlier. And those edges on the blades, though rusted, still looked rather sharp. Size-wise, they would make nice weapons.

But the rotator lay off to the side, and directly between him and Titan X. It would be a race for him to get there before Titan X got to him. And from the look of it, the severed tendon in the larger Titan's ankle had finished healing.

Fortunately, for Eren, he was closer, and he quickly made a run for it. Titan X roared and began crawling towards him. The distance between them closed quickly, but Eren reached the rotator first. He grabbed one of the blades with his remaining arm and pulled. The blade bent towards him, but did not separate from the whole.

The giant form of Titan X was upon him, another roar echoing through the land. As its shadow fell over him, Eren focused all his strength on his missing limb, and a new arm sprouted. With both hands, he ripped the blade off the rotator and whirled around, swinging it with all his might.

There hadn't been time to aim, and Titan X had been moments away from snatching Eren in its jaws. The blade swung into Titan X's open mouth, slicing straight through the back if its head between its upper and lower law.

It was a clean cut, and the upper portion of the Titan's head fell away, unleashing a massive cloud of steam. Titan X stopped moving, merely remaining on its hands and knees. The blade in Eren's hands was bent out of shape, now rendered useless, but had been good for one fine stroke.

It wasn't over yet though. The giant body of the Super Colossal Titan was just a suit of meat the real Titan X was wearing. Eren knew that he had to use this opportunity to rip the real Titan X out of the Super Colossal Titan's body before it regenerated and he was back to square one.

Tossing the broken windmill blade aside, he jumped up onto the back of the giant body. It was hard to see in all the steam, and his skin blistered and burned from the heat, but he was able to locate the back of the neck.

Burying his fingers into Titan X's hot flesh, he began to pull it back. The giant body suddenly sprang to its feet. Eren fell, but managed to keep his grip on the Titan's neck, leaving him dangling down its back.

The skin at the back of its neck suddenly tore open, and Titan X emerged. It pulled its arms free, but remained attached to the larger body from the waist down. Turning around, it looked down at Eren and roared. Its entire arm hardened, and it threw a punch down at him. The fist slammed into Eren's cheek, breaking his jaw and tearing his flesh. With his lower jaw hanging on by only the skin on his left side, Eren fell from all 80 meters of the Titan's body.

He landed hard on his back, breaking his spin. It would heal soon enough, but until then, it rendered him unable to move. The entire body of the Super Colossal Titan turned to him, Titan X still remaining attached at the top, controlling the entire form.

Lifting its giant foot, it stomped down on Eren's lower body, crushing him completely. As Eren roared, the two giant hands reached down and tore his arms out of their sockets. He was now left completely at the Titan's mercy.

"No, no, no!" Mikasa cried, and once again went to aid him as Titan X lifted its foot and picked up Eren's steaming body.

Up in the air, the giant hand brought Eren over to Titan X's real body protruding from the Super Colossal Titan's neck. His paralysis prevented him from struggling as he was turned around so the back of his own neck was exposed, and Titan X grasped his shoulders. Opening its mouth wide, it bit into the nape of his neck, tearing it open, and revealing Eren's real body once again. With a victorious roar, it reached down and ripped its own stomach open.

Mikasa's cables flew up and latched onto Titan X's shoulder, pulling her up the Super Colossal Titan's body until she reached Titan X at the top.

One of Titan X's hands flew out and grabbed her, trapping her arms to her sides in its grasp. In her desperation to get to Eren, she had lost her head and gotten careless. Now she was firmly caught, unable to get to him.

Titan X glanced at her uncaringly, snarling at her only once before turning its attention back to Eren. With Eren's useless body held in the Super Colossal Titan's right hand, and Mikasa held in Titan X's left, it reached for him with its other right hand.

Blood went flying as Eren launched into the air, cutting himself out of the Rogue Titan's body with his blades. Though his transformation into a Titan had destroyed his ODM Gear, rendering it useless, his blades were still perfectly useable. He came down over Titan X's head, the monster's weak spot in his sight.

"Time for you to die!" he shouted.

Titan X's free hand shot up, grabbing Eren. He was left hanging in the air, less than half a dozen feet over the Titan's head, directly over its weak spot. He had been  _so_  close.

"No way," he muttered in disbelief.

Titan X glanced up at him, and Eren could have sworn he saw a mocking glimmer in its eye, and its lipless mouth seeming to break out into a grin.

A pair of cables latched onto Titan X's wrist, just beneath Eren. In a blur of movement, Levi was there, swinging his blades, having followed Mikasa to aid Eren. The first cut severed the monster's tendons in its wrist. The second was aimed higher, cutting off Titan X's pinky, ring, middle, and index fingers.

Titan X roared as Eren dropped from its grip. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as he fell through the mess of blonde hair going down the Titan's back.

"Do it!" Levi shouted to him.

"Kill it!" Mikasa cried.

As he fell, it took Eren a second to realize that the nape of Titan X's neck was right in front of him. And a second was all he had as he continued to fall. There was no sign of hesitation as he spun himself around as he fell, swinging his blades.

He felt the first blade make contact with flesh, followed by the second one a little bit lower as he carved out a large chunk of flesh in the shape of an apple slice. The chunk of flesh wen flying, the skin hardening as it did so, but not fast enough to block the blow. Titan X had been a second too late in hardening its skin.

The roar emitting from the Titan's mouth was abruptly cut off. The life left its eyes, and its grip went slack, the large hand of the Super Colossal Titan dropping the evaporating body of the Rogue Titan, as did the smaller hand holding Mikasa. She leapt of the hand, sending out her cables, and quickly caught Eren as he fell past her.

As Eren, Mikasa, and Levi made it clear of the giant body, the massive form of the Super Colossal Titan fell to its knees with an earth shattering  _thud_. An even louder one followed as it fell forward, the whiplash ripping Titan X's lower body from the Super Colossal Titan's neck. It fell lifeless in front of it, its eyes staring blankly up at the sky. Clouds of steam rose from the two bodies in abundance as they began to evaporate.

The three soldiers stared at the fallen Titan's body, Eren with a look of indifference on his face. He felt nothing staring at the steaming corpse, absolutely nothing. There was no sense of accomplishment, joy, or loss, he just felt completely empty, as if he were starring at a tree or a rock rather than the offspring of his Titan form. While before it had filled him with complete disgust and blinding rage, looking at it now, he felt less than nothing.

"Go to Hell," he whispered. "Go rot with the rest of your kind."

Mikasa glanced at him. "Eren, you ok?"

Eren sighed. "Yeah, I'm just glad it's over. Titan X is gone, and so is the threat it posed to everyone. Now I just want to put it out of mind and pretend it never happened."

She went to him and hugged him tightly. "Yes, it never happened."

As his adrenaline rush died down, the exhaustion and use of energy finally took its toll, and Eren's eyes closed as he collapsed against her, his strength depleted.

"Eren!" she gasped, catching him.

Levi moved to help support him. "He'll be fine; he's just exhausted, both physically and mentally. We'll get him back to the city where he can rest up."

Mikasa blinked back tears that threatened to creep up in her eyes. She hated seeing him like this. No one should have to go through so much; he shouldn't have to go through anymore.

"Damn them," she muttered. "Damn them all for doing this to him." She glanced at the evaporating skeletal remains of Titan X. "And especially that doctor for what he did."

Levi nonchalantly sheathed his blade as he spoke his mind, knowing what was really bothering her, even if she didn't. "If you don't want him to have children with anyone else besides you, then make a move already."

Mikasa blushed furiously. "I-It's… it's not like that…" she immediately denied. "He's… he's family…"

Levi resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Right, family, of course," he muttered sarcastically. He turned to the remaining soldiers as they continued to do battle with the last few Titans that were still alive. "Fall back! Leave them be! The mission has been accomplished! We return to the city!"

There was no argument, everyone was eager to get off the battlefield. Predictably, the few remaining Titans gave chase, and four more were killed off when they got too close while the rest were outrun.

With the threat of Titan X ended, the certainty of human extinction was gone. They may have been back to square when with the Titan problem, but at least the danger the Reproducing Titan presented was no more. Though the problem had been manmade, this was still a great victory for humanity over the Titan menace.

Yet the war was far from over. There was still much work that needed to be done. But as long as there were those that were still willing to fight, humanity still had a chance. Maybe not a good chance, but it was still a chance.

**THE END**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N: That's the end folks. I hope you enjoyed it. I tried keeping things as canon as possible so it could actually fit in with the real story, and I think I pulled it off. Truthfully though, I'm a little dissatisfied with the very end after they killed Titan X, but I wasn't really sure how else to close it. I hope you at least thought the fight was good. Now all that's left to do is sit back and wait for the manga series to be completed. But I won't be sitting ideally. I've got another story in mind. It's not an Attack On Titan fic, but I hope you'll take a look at it and some of my other stories. Feel free to review, and have a good day.)


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